Last update 21:56
The time has come when there are plenty of mandarins in the shops again. But do they still taste like mandarin? The Belgian radio program From Inspector delves into the phenomenon that the taste of mandarins has declined in recent years. Consumers complain that the orange fruits are pale, dry and tasteless. “It is true that the great diversity of flavors is gone,” says tropical agriculture professor Patrick Van Damme (from 44:00). “The taste of mandarins has certainly narrowed over the years. The producer aims for the most average consumer. And that is why the mandarin must also have an average taste. ”
The program lets listener Dries Boeraeve speak, who complains about the lack of quality. “How embarrassing (annoying, ed.) It is to take two mandarins to work in the morning and then discover during your break that one mandarin is completely dried out and the other tastes too sour.”
Dries also wonders whether the quality decline may be due to the fact that the mandarins are kept in a cold store for months. “Mandarins don’t lend themselves very well to long-term storage. You can keep an apple in a cold store for months. So the mandarins that you now find in the shop have indeed been harvested recently, ”confirms Professor Van Damme.
Many listeners also complain about mandarins with many rotten spots. “I noticed it myself. I bought a box of mandarins this week and had to throw away six of them because of rotten spots, ‘says Van Damme. “That’s because nowadays almost no pesticides are allowed to be used. As a result, the fruits are less protected against fungi. The skin is therefore more vulnerable, which means that you get brown spots more quickly. ” The scientist also warns against tangerines with stalks. They penetrate the skins of other mandarins and can cause them to rot.
cc-photo: Olga Dudenko
–
–
