Why fruit is not like it was in the good old days

A reader of The Canberra Times sparked the debate when she wrote: "The repellent unripeness of the 2023 summer stone fruits of all varieties led me to vow never to buy any of it again".

But is she right?

The Canberra Times consulted a greengrocer and one of the country's most respected food scientists. They don't quite agree with the letter-writer.

The scientist, Deon Mahoney of the University of Queensland, thinks that naturally ripened fruit, picked and eaten in season, not far from the tree should taste just the same.

But fruit stored for months and bred for low cost or good looks on the supermarket shelf can disappoint.

Professor Mahoney cited the Floradade tomato (don't get involved in the debate over whether it's fruit or vegetable).

It was bred by the University of Florida to look good (bright red) and be low cost. It's resistant to disease and very tolerant to drought and heat.

Professor Mahoney said, "It has a beautiful shape but there was a loss of flavour".

His recommendation is to get to know your tomatoes on the supermarket shelf. Some taste better than others. He goes for vine ripened ones. And he recommends putting tomatoes on a shelf at home so they ripen: "Give them a little bit of sunlight."

The Canberra greengrocer, Ken Irvine of Ziggys Fresh, said that the industry did put the emphasis on breeding good-looking, low cost fruit but that has now changed.

"It was all about size, colour and shelf-life," he said from his store in Fyshwick Fresh Food Markets. "Now they've made it that flavour is just as important."

He said that new varieties of plums, apples and strawberries were now very flavourful.

He cited the Jazz apple, developed and trade-marked by a Victorian company, Montague.

It was bred from the Royal Gala and Braeburn varieties, merging the shape and sweetness of the first with the tartness of the second.

"JAZZ™ apples are perfumed like Lilacs or Hyacinths and possess an effervescent, refreshing, tangy and sweet flavour," as the company's blurb puts it.

Montague also developed the Sunset plumb, the Donut peach and Croc Egg plums ("They are named CROC EGGS™ because they look much like Australian crocodile eggs!" the company trumpeted).

The industry also seems to have learnt a lesson about strawberries. It has switched from creating big, bright red - but tasteless - strawberries to realising that people actually want strawberries that taste like, well, strawberries.

"For a long while they were developing varieties that were getting bigger and bigger and bigger but now the new variety has a lot of flavour," Mr Irvine said.

The fruit industry is global. The Victorian family business Montague, for example, has now become part of a Canadian company owned by the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan.

Big companies assess demand and respond with new varieties of fruit. Where there was only Golden Delicious and Granny Smith in the "old days", there are now countless varieties designed - it's the right word - to suit taste and budget.

It is true that for cost reasons, fruit is often picked before it's fully ripe - what the industry calls "green mature". Apples are stored for months and released to the shelves gradually. Supermarkets prefer hard, hardly ripened fruit because its's easier to transport long distances without bruising. Unripe bananas are stored and then warmed before ethylene is used to trigger ripening and the yellow colour we expect.

So some fruit may be tasteless - but there are many more types to choose from. And it may be cheaper.

But the really flavoursome fruit is still out there - at a price. And at the skill of the fruit engineers. You need to know where to find it.