Organic food is more mainstream, frozens increasingly make the scene: range of offerings at BioFach proves that an industry has truly come of age.

Blue Dreams of Argentina offers blueberries and strawberries; Sin, filet (www.surfrut.com) of Chile includes kiwis and grapes; Covelt of Helmond, the Netherlands (www.covelt.nl) has blue and black berries in an easy to handle "fruittube" to be added to desserts and smoothies; while the Dutch Berrico Food Company sells cranberries from Canada.

The Danish Berrifine includes elderberries, elderflower, lingonberries, sea buckthorn, sour cherries and a relatively unknown yet quite interesting fruit with a dry and light sour flavor called aronia, which is also known as black chokeberry or mountain ash.

The health benefits of aronia are said to include compounds to fight cancer and cardiac diseases including high blood pressure. It can be used in wine making and as a colorant for all kind of juices, jams and other products.

More berries are available from Ecoplod of Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria (www.ecoplod.com), and Bionest from Spain. Urenbio (www.urenbio.co.uk) of Britain also has rhubarb in its range, while Sanex Foods (www.sanex-foods.com) of Izmir, Turkey, offers apricots, pears and grapefruit.

Okoland (www.oekoland.de), Wunstorf, Germany, which had until recently concentrated on small packs of a single frozen herb, has added an Italian herb mixture. Another new product is a classic German stand-by: a bunch a "soup greens," namely the basic vegetables for cooking soup: celeriac, leeks, carrots, parsley and onions, now available in a handy frozen version. And last but not least, there are a couple of new convenient pasta dishes: ravioli with a spinach-ricotta filling and tortellini in a creamy cheese sauce.

Venlo, Holland-based Oerlemaria (www.oerlemans-foods.nl) grows its own organic range of vegetables and fruit, including berries, in Holland, Hungary and Poland. Sales are increasing due to the growth of the organic food market globally. The conventional range from the company, which recently was acquired by the Vion Group, offers an assortment of "forgotten vegetables" which consists of purslane, salsify and Swiss chard among others, vegetables that are usually sold fresh through organic markets. Unfortunately, there is not yet significant demand for those greens and roots in frozen organic quality.

BiOvum (www.biovum.de), Salgen, Germany, sells scrambled eggs in frozen form, plus Italian and Indian burgers with eggs as their main ingredient. It has been awarded golden, silver and bronze medals, respectively, by the DLG (German agricultural society).

The most sensational product for the sweet tooth this year probably came from the Booja Booja company based in Norfolk, Great Britain. The continent was introduced to its Stuff in Tub ice cream desserts, which won the award for best organic new product for 2007 in England. Flavors include Keep Smiling Vanilla M'Gorilla, Hunky Punky Chocolate, Coconut Hullabaloo, Feisty Winjin Ginger and Pompompous Maple Pecan. The names live up to their promise.

Denmark, which was the "Country of the Year" at the BioFach, contributed - you guessed it: Danish pastries by Le Ble d'or (www.lebledor.dk). There was a lot more frozen food from Denmark, including ice cream from Skee Is (www.skeeis.dk) and pizza and lasagne products from Hanegal (www.hanegal.dk).

But the best known Scandinavian product came from Sweden's Gunnar Dafgard (www.dafgard.se), which served up the organic version of what every child and many adults have eaten at IKEA outlets: Kottbullar, otherwise known as Swedish meatballs.

The organic frozen food market is well established. Happy with increasing sales, companies are consolidating their programs, occasionally adding one or the other new product. Despite the fact that the number of organic convenience products is slowly growing, innovations in that field will come from conventional retailers using bio ingredients as their customers will demand the product they are used to, only in better, more sustainable quality.

By LISA SHOEMAKER

QFFI Correspondent