Breeding

Several discoveries in the science of breeding berries were made in the 18th century by Antoine Nicolas Duchesne in his work on strawberries. In the traditional technique of plant breeding, berries with specific desirable characteristics were chosen and allowed to sexually reproduce with other berries, and offspring with improved traits could then be selected and used for further crossing. Plants may be hybridized with different species within the same genus; hybridization between different genus may also be possible, but more difficult. Breeding may seek to increase the size and yield of the fruit, improve the flavor and quality of its nutrient content, such as antioxidants, expand the harvest season, and produce cultivars with resistance to diseases, tolerance of hot or cold conditions, and other desirable traits. Advancements in molecular biology and genetic engineering allow for a more efficient and better-targeted approach in the selection for a desirable genotype, via marker-assisted selection, for example. Genetic modification techniques can also be used for breeding berries.

Color and potential health benefits

Once ripened, berries are typically of a contrasting color to their background (often of green leaves), making them visible and attractive to frugivorous animals and birds. This assists the wide dispersal of the plants’ seeds.

Berry colors are due to natural plant pigments, such as anthocyanins, together with other flavonoids localized mainly in berry skins, seeds, and leaves. Although berry pigments have antioxidant properties in vitro, there is insufficient physiological evidence established to date that berry pigments have actual antioxidant or any other functions within the human body. Consequently, it is not permitted to claim that foods containing polyphenols have antioxidant health value on product labels in the United States or Europe.

Food Idea (Cultural significance)

Use in baked goods

Berries are commonly used in pies or tarts, such as blueberry pie, blackberry pie, and strawberry pie.
Berries are often used in baking, such as blueberry muffins, blackberry muffins, berry cobblers, berry crisps, berry cakes, berry buckles, berry crumb cakes, berry tea cakes, and berry cookies. Berries are commonly incorporated whole into the batter for baking, and care is often taken so as to not burst the berries. Frozen or dried berries may be preferable for some baked berry products. Fresh berries are also often incorporated into baked berry desserts, sometimes with cream, either as a filling to the dessert or as a topping.

Beverages

Berries are often added to water and/or juice, as in cranberry juice, which accounts for 95% of cranberry crop usage, blueberry juice, raspberry juice, goji berry juice, acai juice, Aronia berry juice, and strawberry juice. Wine is the principal fermented beverage made from berries (grapes). Fruit wines are commonly made out of other berries. In most cases, sugars must be added to the berry juices in the process of Chaptalization to increase the alcohol content of the wine. Examples of fruit wines made from berries include elderberry wine, strawberry wine, blueberry wine, blackberry wine, redcurrant wine, huckleberry wine, goji wine, and cranberry wine. Berries are used in some styles of beer, particularly framboise (made with raspberry) and other fruit lambics.

Dried

Currants, raisins, and sultanas are examples of dried grape berries, and many other commercially important berries are available in dried form.

Fruit preserves

Main article: Fruit preserves
Elderberry jam on bread

Berries are perishable fruits with a short shelf life and are often preserved by drying, freezing, pickling or making fruit preserves. Berries such as blackberry, blueberry, boysenberry, lingo berry, loganberry, raspberry, and strawberry are often used in jams and jellies. In the United States, Native Americans were “the first to make preserves from blueberries”.

Other usages

Chefs have created quick-pickled soft fruit, such as blackberries, strawberries, and blueberries. Strawberries can be battered and quickly fried in a deep fryer. Sauces made from berries, such as cranberry sauce, can be frozen until hard, battered, and deep-fried. Cranberry sauce is a traditional food item for Thanksgiving, and similar sauces can be made from many other berries such as blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, and huckleberries.