Have you noticed that more and more people are not fond of eating fruits? 

Many consumers say that the fruits in supermarkets now have no other taste except for sweetness, and there is no fruit flavor at all. During the Spring Festival, a friend gave a box of Aksu apples, which were too sweet to eat in one bite. Fruits are becoming increasingly sweet, and finding a sour, sweet, and delicious fruit is not easy.

Sellers are increasingly comparing the sweetness of fruits when showcasing their quality, as if the sweeter the fruit, the higher the quality. 

What fruits are there that make people feel sweeter and sweeter? Strawberries, watermelons, and apples stand out as the fruits that have been mentioned the most frequently as "sweet" in the notes related to the Xiaohongshu platform.

Actually, all fruits have both sweetness and acidity. When sweetness is higher than acidity, the taste is sweet, and when acidity is higher than sweetness, the taste is sour. For example, the sweetness of Qiuyue pear is not high, and the reason why it has the sweetest taste among all pear varieties is because it has the lowest acidity among all pear varieties. (As shown in the following figure)

However, the sour taste of tomatoes is not due to their low sweetness. In fact, the sweetness of tomatoes is even higher than that of watermelons, but the acidity is higher, so the taste of tomatoes is sour. Watermelon tastes slightly sweet because of its low acidity, so its sweetness value is less than 12, giving people a sweet feeling. However, in recent years, the watermelons on the market have been too sweet to eat.

In fact, in the process of fruit cultivation, the easiest thing is to increase sweetness, while the most difficult is to improve the overall taste, flavor, and aroma of the fruit. It can be said that the taste of fragrant fruits is definitely not bad, because growing fruit aromas is the most difficult.

The growth process of fruits is divided into primary metabolism and secondary metabolism. Primary metabolism refers to carbon metabolism, nitrogen metabolism, photosynthesis, respiration, genetic material metabolism, etc., which completes the accumulation of plant morphogenetic materials. That is to say, with just primary metabolism, fruits can grow and have a sweet taste. But the secondary metabolic stage determines the nutrition, flavor, and aroma of the fruit.

Due to the excessive use of chemical fertilizers in most domestic orchards, fruits have no secondary metabolism and only have simple sweetness. So both the fruit flavor, aroma, and nutrition are very lacking.

So comparing sweetness alone is really meaningless. Do consumers like pure sweet fruits without fruit flavor or aroma?

In fact, not only Chinese fruits, but also Japanese fruits have been developing in a sweeter direction, only becoming sweeter while also considering flavor. After all, Japan's soil organic matter content has reached 5-8, while Chinese soil is so poor that the average organic matter content is less than 1. In Japan, many orchard soils have become so fertile that no foreign fertilizers can be used, while in China, finding orchards that do not use fertilizers is scarce. (Pay attention to the official account of fruit observation, and we will issue a paper on the first principles of fruit tree growth in the near future)

In addition, Wang Haibo, Deputy Director of the Fruit Tree Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, also mentioned that in recent years, whether it is the promotion of fruit varieties or cultivation techniques, a very important goal is high sugar.

Fruits lose their fruity flavor, their skin becomes thinner, their flesh becomes fuller, their seeds become smaller or even absent, and their juice becomes more abundant. However, the original acidity and aroma of fruits are gone. Under human intervention, fruits are becoming less and less natural in flavor, even if they are sweet and unnatural.

Bagging fruits results in beautiful skin, but fruits that are not bagged are more delicious and durable for transportation. Fruit bagging was invented in Japan, but now Japan has shifted from bagging to not bagging, and with the increase in manual labor, bagging is clearly unsustainable. However, in recent years, it has been difficult for China to achieve non bagging, or non bagging means higher frequency or dosage of pesticide use. Because not bagging requires a high level of comprehensive ecological environment, it is obvious that the soil in China is so poor, let alone a good ecological environment.

As joked online, facing such a situation, it is difficult to say whether there will be a day when you offer someone a certain fruit, and their first reaction will be "sweet?".

At that time, it must be sour and sweet, which may be the highest evaluation of fruits by the Chinese people.

Image transferred from NetEase