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Blueberry Preferred for Taste, Not for Health

by Himabindu Venkatakrishnan on Aug 11 2014 2:47 PM

 Blueberry Preferred for Taste, Not for Health
Blueberries are preferred by consumers more for its taste than for its health benefits, revealed a study.
University of Florida researchers suggest that about 61 percent of the blueberry consumers prefers flavor over health, while 39 percent believe the fruit, which contains antioxidants, provides health benefits.

Jim Olmstead, assistant professor, who will use the data to breed new types of blueberries, said that they were trying to determine what the consumers' perception of the ideal blueberry was.

Thomas Colquhoun, study's co-author, said that historically, many blueberry traits had been selected with producers in mind, including climate adaptation, yield, harvest potential and disease resistance.

He added that developing a new blueberry variety could take more than 10 years, so before investing that time, scientists and growers need to know what consumers want.

The study is published in the journal HortScience.

Source-ANI


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