{"id":4938,"date":"2009-09-01T12:13:22","date_gmt":"2009-09-01T18:13:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress-367309-1145705.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=4938"},"modified":"2009-09-01T12:13:22","modified_gmt":"2009-09-01T18:13:22","slug":"fresh-produce-quality-success-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/fresh-produce-quality-success-stories\/","title":{"rendered":"Fresh Produce Quality Success Stories"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

[social_buttons]<\/p>\n

There is an old saying in the fresh produce industry: “Produce is purchased based on appearance, not by taste.” \u00a0This is unfortunately often true. \u00a0People buy their fruit and vegetables based on how fresh and blemish-free they look. \u00a0They don’t normally have the chance to do taste comparisons. \u00a0The reality is that lots of fruits<\/a> and vegetables look better than they taste.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, there have been some produce improvements that break through this “appearance” paradigm. \u00a0I’ll describe just four examples that are favorite of mine and about which I have some background information (don’t worry, no-one is paying me to promote these).<\/p>\n

The Golden Pineapple<\/h2>\n

It used to be that buying a fresh pineapple<\/a> was a high risk investment. \u00a0They were fairly expensive and much of the time they were so acidic that you would burn the roof of your mouth. \u00a0The Pineapple Research Institute in Hawaii developed a much sweeter, lower acid hybrid called 73-114, but for years it could never be commercialized because it couldn’t be successfully shipped to the US from either Central America or Hawaii.\u00a0 Finally, the fruit company, Del Monte and the post-harvest technology company FMC figured out a a way for it to make it to US markets. \u00a0They found a particular food-safe wax that changed the gas exchange (CO2, water, oxygen…) such that the fruit could stay alive during shipping. \u00a0Del Monte launched this as “Del Monte Gold”<\/a> in 1997. \u00a0Since then many companies have introduced “Golden Pineapples” and pineapple consumption has been rising ever since.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The “Personal Watermelon”<\/h2>\n

For a long time, watermelons were sold by size. \u00a0Huge was considered good, but unless you are going to take it to a picnic with dozens of people, a typical family can’t eat a whole melon before it goes bad. In 2002, Syngenta Seeds introduced the first “personal watermelon.” <\/a>I interviewed the breeder<\/a> around that time. \u00a0His goal was to have a melon that was almost all the really good part in the center of the melon, sweet and dark red. \u00a0The product was called\u00a0PureHeart\u00ae <\/a>and is marketed under the Dulcinea<\/a> brand. \u00a0There are other versions now, but for my money this is still the best option. \u00a0Actually it is amazing how many people you can feed from this little melon. \u00a0The breeder’s ultimate goal\u00a0goal was to have a melon the size of a softball that you could take to work for lunch. \u00a0I don’t know if that is possible or economically feasible for the growers, but it sounds great. Dulcinea also has a “Tuscan Sweet”<\/a> musk melon that looks like a\u00a0cantaloupe\u00a0which is fantastic.<\/p>\n

“Conditioned” Peaches and Nectarines<\/h2>\n

\"Some<\/a><\/p>\n

Peaches and nectarines can be wonderful if you get to eat them picked fully ripe. \u00a0I was spoiled getting to eat these when I lived in Davis, California and in Western Colorado. \u00a0Ripe stone fruit can’t be shipped that way from California or Colorado or Georgia to the rest of the country. \u00a0Growers have to pick the fruit when it is still very firm. \u00a0It will soften, but its just not the same taste experience. \u00a0To make things worse, many grocery chains put fruit into an intermediate temperature storage room during distribution and that is where that terrible mealy texture develops. \u00a0 Fortunately, in the last few years, it has been possible to buy peaches and nectarines that are pretty close to the tree ripe experience. \u00a0This is because researchers in California<\/a> found that if you took the firm fruit and exposed it to warm conditions for a couple of days \u00a0(instead of the normal immediate chilling) the fruit would be “conditioned” and develop far better flavor and texture. \u00a0Its not a trivial thing to manage. \u00a0There are dozens of different varieties of these fruits (so that harvest\u00a0doesn’t\u00a0all happen at the same time) and each one responds differently. \u00a0The difficulty has been for growers to be able to communicate to consumers which fruit has been conditioned (it does not look different in the store). \u00a0Fairly successful brands for this have been “I M RIPE\u00ae” and “SUMMERIPE<\/a>\u00ae.” \u00a0Its still not a 100% thing, but you have much better odds of getting a good stone fruit experience.<\/p>\n

Sweet Scarlet Table Grapes<\/h2>\n

\"Sweet<\/a><\/p>\n

USDA grape breeders David Ramming and Ronald Tarailo developed a new red seedless grape that was released in 2004.\u00a0It is called\u00a0“Sweet Scarlet <\/a>and I think it is delicious.\u00a0It has some genetic background from muscat grapes which\u00a0have a flavor compound called linalool<\/a>.\u00a0 That is also part of the distinctive taste in Riesling and\u00a0Gewurztraminer\u00a0wines (also Leechees). Not everyone likes it, but people who do think it is wonderful. \u00a0Unfortunately, I’ve only found these labeled in the store a few times. \u00a0The grape industry and\/or retailers do not seem to have learned the lesson from the apple industry that consumers can learn the names of varieties and learn which they like the best. \u00a0Start asking your local produce manager for this grape – lets see if we can get it into the mainstream!<\/p>\n

There lots of other good examples of taste breakthroughs in produce: the big, Red Bell Peppers, Broccolini, Campari tomatoes, many new varieties of apples<\/a>… \u00a0I’m just glad that there are folks out there striving to deliver better produce. \u00a0Hm, this has made me hungry!<\/p>\n

Pineapple image by visualdensity<\/a>.\u00a0 Nectarine image by CanadianFamily’s<\/a>. Grape image from USDA.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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