Concerned that Fuji apples just aren’t as crisp and tart as they used to be, scientists looking into the matter have recently found the reason – climate change.
Concerned that Fuji apples just aren’t as crisp and tart as they used to be, Japanese scientists looking into the matter have recently found the reason – climate change.
Other favorites like wine grapes and maple syrup, have been affected by warming temperatures.
Trees are blooming earlier in the spring and by harvest time the fruits are riper and sweeter than they’ve been in previous years.
To get to the bottom of what’s been going on with the Fuji apple, Japanese scientists examined 40 years worth of data.
What they discovered was that along with the sweetness increasing, the amount of malic acid had decreased.
Malic acid is what gives – or gave, as the case is – the fruit its intense flavor.
Today’s apples were also found to be more prone to a disease that robs them of crispness.
When looking for possible environmental causes, the scientists found that the temperature in the area had increased by 2 degrees Celsius since the 1970s.
Apple blossoms appeared a day or two earlier each decade, and the 70 days before harvest had gotten warmer.
It was also acknowledged that due to the fact that the change has happened gradually, most people probably didn’t even notice.
