No more mush! The pear that stays perfectly ripe
WAITING for a pear to ripen in the fruit bowl can take what seems like an age.
Then all too quickly, if you don’t eat it straight away, it turns to inedible mush.
Now scientists believe they have developed a technique to guarantee perfectly ripe pears. They even hope it could lead to sliced pears being sold pre-packed in food outlets – to challenge the dominance of ready-prepared apples.
So far methods used to keep apples in perfect condition – which often involve applying a commercial substance called SmartFresh to prevent further ripening – have not been applicable to pears. This is because apples are picked when they are ready to eat, while pears are harvested unripe.
However Professor Amit Dhingra from Washington State University in the US, who came up with the new technique, has found a way to reverse the synthetic substance.
By studying the fruit’s genetic make-up, he identified a chemical that could restart the ripening process – allowing starch to once again convert to sugar, resulting in a perfectly juicy snack.
He said: ‘Getting a nicely ripened pear is harder than winning the lottery. [But] apples that were harvested a year ago and stored in a controlled atmosphere seem as fresh as this year’s crop.’
He explained that the key was finding a way to end the ‘suspended animation’ triggered by SmartFresh, which leads to good looking but inedible pears.
His team mixed their newly identified compound in water then soaked fruit already treated with SmartFresh for 24 hours. ‘Five days later we found it had ripened beautifully,’ he said.
Professor Dhingra and his team have now applied the process to large batches of pears in a food storage centre by using an ambient fog containing the compound.
The professor has also signed a partnership with US food company, Crunch Pak, which had success selling sliced apples as an alternative to desserts in fast food restaurants. Initial taste tests on the sliced pears have received positive results.
Scientific production techniques have ensured that many previously seasonal foods are now available all year round.
Refrigerated warehouses can dramatically slow the ripening process, while the air inside packs of pre-washed salad also has its oxygen reduced to increase shelf life.