Fruit refers to edible fruit and seeds, usually eaten raw, from mainly perennial shrubs and trees. In contrast to vegetables, fruit tastes pleasantly sour to sweet as it has a higher sugar content. However, it is not always possible to clearly categorise some foods.
From a botanical point of view, tomatoes, peppers, pumpkins, courgettes and cucumbers belong to the fruit family, as they develop from a fertilised flower. However, due to their lack of sweetness and acidity, and because they come from annual plants, they are categorised as fruit vegetables. Rhubarb, on the other hand, is a plant stalk but is actually a vegetable. However, it is often used like fruit.1a)
Fruit-producing plants can be divided into fruit and seed fruit. In the case of fruit, the fleshy or juicy parts of the fruit or flower (or inflorescence, such as the base of the flower) are eaten, while in the case of seed fruit, the fleshy, juicy parts of the seed are eaten.2)
In everyday use, a distinction is made between:
- Pome fruit: (apple, pear, quince),
- Stone fruit (cherry, plum, peach, apricot),
- Soft fruit (gooseberry, raspberry, strawberry, but also tropical/citrus fruits such as orange, lemon, mandarin, kiwi, avocado),
- Nuts (hazelnut, walnut, coconut),
- Wild fruit (blueberries, elderberries, sea buckthorn, cranberries).2)
Wild fruits such as raspberries, sloes and blueberries have probably been part of the diet of humans and their ancestors since time immemorial. The first cultivation of these fruits, i.e. their planned cultivation and care, took place around 8,000 years BC. Finds from the 4th millennium BC in the Middle East point to the first fruit cultivation with tree fruits such as apples.1a)
Today, almost all fruit varieties are available all year round, as they are grown in greenhouses alongside seasonal outdoor cultivation or imported out of season from countries with more suitable climates. The shelf life of fruit depends primarily on the type of fruit, the time of harvest and the storage conditions. The decisive factor for the time of harvest is whether the fruit variety is post-ripening (climacteric) or non-post-ripening (non-climacteric).1b)
Climacteric varieties can already be harvested when they are ripe for picking. They then develop their eating ripeness during transport or storage. As these fruits produce the gaseous plant hormone ethylene, which can also accelerate the ripening process of other fruits and vegetables, care should be taken when storing them together to determine whether they are climacteric or non-climacteric fruits and vegetables.1b) Here are a few examples:
Table: sh / traditura, BzfE3)
Unripe, non-climacteric fruit does not ripen but spoils more quickly if it is stored near ethylene-producing fruit and vegetables. To increase the shelf life of citrus fruits, for example, or to delay their ageing/degradation processes, they are coated with a layer of wax or resin.3)
Finally, a few more key figures:
According to the FAO, global fruit production rose by around 63% compared to 2000 to a total of 933 million tonnes in 2022.4) In the same period, the total population only grew by around 29%.5)
With a global production of approx. 135 million tonnes, bananas were by far the most produced fruit in 2022, followed by watermelons (approx. 100 million tonnes), apples (approx. 96 million tonnes), oranges (approx. 75 million tonnes) and grapes (approx. 75 million tonnes). At just under 52% in total, these five types of fruit accounted for just over half of the global fruit harvest in 2022.
However, while bananas and apples showed a steady upward trend in global agricultural production, the harvest volumes for watermelons, oranges and grapes stabilised in recent years following an increase until the mid/end of the 2010s.4)
In the 2023/2024 season, Brazil was the world's largest producer of oranges with 16.5 million tonnes, far ahead of China with 7.63 million tonnes and the European Union with 5.48 million tonnes.
Table: sh / traditura, Statista6)
But high temperatures and a severe lack of water have led to a lower number of oranges per tree in the current season. Added to this is a disease (citrus greening), which causes citrus trees to die and can destroy entire orange plantations. Based on a forecast by the Brazilian Citrus Industry Association, the 2024/2025 season is expected to see a 25% drop in the harvest compared to the previous year - this would be the worst harvest in Brazil since 1988.7)
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Our next article is about luxury foods.
References:
1) Rimbach, G., Nagursky, J., Erbersdobler H. F., 2015: Lebensmittel-Warenkunde für Einsteiger, 2. Auflage, a) Page 206 f., b) Page 215, Springer-Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg, ISBN: 978-3-662-46280-5
2) Lieberei, R., Reisdorff, C., 2012: Nutzpflanzen, 8. überarbeitete Auflage, Page 157 f., Georg Thieme Verlag KG, Stuttgart, ISBN: 978-3-13-530408-3
3) Cf. Bundeszentrum für Ernährung, 2022: Lebensmittelkunde Obst, Essbare Früchte, taken from the internet on 02.07.2024, https://www.bzfe.de/lebensmittel/lebensmittelkunde/obst/
4) Cf. FAO, 2023: Agricultural production statistics 2000-2022, FAOSTAT Analytical Brief 79, taken from the internet on 26.06.2024, ISSN 2709-0078 [Online]
5) Cf. United Nations, Population Devision, 2022: World Population Prospects 2022, taken from the internet on 26.06.2024, https://population.un.org/wpp/
6) Cf. Statista, 2024: Leading orange producing countries worldwide in 2023/2024 (in million metric tons), taken from the internet on 04.07.2024, https://www.statista.com/statistics/1044840/major-orange-producers-worldwide/
7) Cf. Tagesschau, 2024: Schlechte Ernten, Orangensaft wird immer teurer, taken from the internet on 04.07.2024, https://www.tagesschau.de/wirtschaft/verbraucher/orangensaft-preis-anstieg-100.html