Perfecting the pineapple

The pineapple has always been one of my favorite fruits. Apparently I’m not alone: a recent e-mail from a listener to the CBC Radio version of this column noted, “There is a new pineapple on the market that is very sweet, has extra vitamin C, (is) much less acidic and is ready to eat when you buy it. It is incredibly delicious…I eat one or two a week myself…what can your science guy tell us about them?”

First, I can tell you that, much as I like pineapple, I don’t eat one or two a week. But after spending a few hours researching them, I’m ready to start.

Let’s begin with some background. Contrary to popular belief, the pineapple is not native to Hawaii; it comes from South America. There are many different species, but the ones we get fruit from grow about one metre tall and have extra-wide leafstalks that fit together around the base of the plant to form a water-holding basin. Water falls on the leaves, flows down into the basin, and collects there for use by the plant as needed. These basins support whole ecological communities, ranging from single-cell organisms to aquatic plants, insects, frogs and even crabs, whose wastes provide additional nutrients to the plant, making it less dependent on soil.

The pineapple was first domesticated millennia ago by people living in the basins of the Orinoco and Amazon Rivers. From there, the pineapple spread all over the American tropics and sub-tropics, including the Caribbean, which is where the crewmen of Christopher Columbus’s second voyage discovered it.

The difficulties of getting a pineapple (so-called because it resembled a pine cone to European eyes) back to Europe, or even to the northern American colonies, in edible condition made pineapple a precious commodity for many years. They were often the centerpiece of the elaborate table displays featured in formal dinners of the 17th, 18th and 19th century for that reason. Because of this, the pineapple became a symbol of hospitality and welcome, which is why it was used a lot in home decoration, on mantles, gate-posts, furniture, and more. (Read Hoag Levins’s excellent article “Symbolism of the Pineapple.”)

Today, the pineapple is more important economically than metaphorically. It’s the most important fruit of the Americas and the third-most important tropical fruit, behind bananas and mangoes. Annual world production has tripled during the last thirty years to more than 12 million tonnes, 70 percent of which is consumed locally as fresh fruit.

Thailand is the world’s largest pineapple producer, followed by Brazil, the Philippines, India and China. (Despite our association of pineapple with Hawaii, Hawaii and Puerto Rico together don’t produce as much pineapple as Colombia, about the same amount as Mexico, and only slightly more than Costa Rica.)

There are many varieties. Canned pineapple is almost always a variety called Smooth Cayenne. Ten years ago, that was the one most often sold as fresh fruit, too–but not any more.

In 1996, Del Monte began marketing its Gold Extra Sweet pineapple, known internally by the much more prosaic name MD-2.

MD-2 is a hybrid that originated in the breeding program of the now-defunct Pineapple Research Institute in Hawaii, which conducted research on behalf of Del Monte, Maui Land and Pineapple, and Dole. Two similar seedlings, numbered 73-114 and 73-50, were found to have bright-gold, very sweet, low-acidity flesh, high resistance to parasites and internal rot, skin that turned amber when ripe and, best of all, the ability to survive cold storage for up to two weeks. Both versions were briefly marketed, but at the time, couldn’t dent the Smooth Cayenne stranglehold on the Hawaiian industry.

The Pineapple Research Institute dissolved in 1987 and its assets were divided between Del Monte and Maui Land and Pineapple. Del Monte took 73-114, which it dubbed MD-2, to its plantations in Costa Rica, found it to be well-suited to growing there, and launched it publicly in 1996. (Del Monte also began marketing 73-50, dubbed CO-2, as Del Monte Gold.)

Much of the growth in sales of fresh pineapple and the per-capita consumption of pineapple in North America is due to the public’s delight with the new varieties. Del Monte was unable to obtain patent protection on the hybrids, which means pineapple growers anywhere can grow them–and are, in Central and South America and Hawaii, especially.

Sweeter, less acidic, ready to eat, more Vitamin C–what’s not to like?

I’m beginning to think one or two a week sounds about right.