October 2020
A team of scientists with the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences has made a recent discovery behind a highly sought-after berry known as the “Miracle Fruit.”
The sweet berry is native to Africa and has been consumed for over a century as a way to make bland or sour foods taste better. It contains a rare protein called miraculin which acts as a taste-modifier.
Alan Chambers is the lead researcher of the 19-month study done on a Homestead Farm owned by Dade County Farm Bureau President Erik Tietig. “We now have foundational data on yield and of the concentration of the miraculin protein in the berry,” said Alan Chambers.
“The berry, similar in size to a raspberry, is primarily valued for its miraculin content, but what this study did for the first time, is quantify the miraculin in the fruit of select varieties.”
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