APPLES AS FOODi 



By William B. Esselen, Jr., Associate Research Professor of Food 

 Technology, Carl R. Fellers, Head of the Department, 

 and Marie S. Gutowska, Assistant Research Professor 



INTRODUCTION 



Since ancient times special curative powers have been attributed to the apple. 

 We are all familiar with a modification of the old Devonshire rhyme (Manville,. 

 1936a) — 



"Ate an apfel avore gwain to bed, 

 Make the doctor beg his bread." 



Apples have been widely used as a food from the earliest times and they hold 

 a place of well-deserved popularity today. According to Todhunter (1937) there 

 are many reasons why this fruit has received dietary recognition. 



It has "color appeal": green, red, russet or yellow, it catches the eye; 

 it has "appetite appeal": cool, crisp, and raw it is most refreshing; and 

 the thrifty like it because it has "variety appeal." No other fruit can be 

 used in so many different ways. Raw or cooked, made into preserves and 

 jellies, candied, dried, canned, prepared as fresh apple juice, made into 

 cider or vinegar, and the peelings used for pectin making, no part of the 

 apple need be wasted. 



During the past ten years considerable effort has been expended In an attempt 

 to make the public nutrition or vitamin conscious. Through scientific research 

 the nutritive qualities of many foods have been evaluated and the results of such 

 investigations have been applied to the improvement of the human diet. As an 

 outgrowth of this development the nutritive value of a food has been used as a 

 strong sales argument for its greater use in many cases. We hear such stories 

 every day on the radio and read them in the newspapers and magazines. In 

 spite of all this publicity, appetite appeal is still all-important to the individual 

 in his choice of foods, and he is reluctant to choose a food on its nutritional merits 

 alone if it lacks eye appeal and appetite appeal. 



Apples have won their enviable position through their aesthetic and appetite 

 appeal, but research has shown that they also possess definite nutritional and 

 therapeutic properties. 



This bulletin summarizes the results of eighteen years of research on the nu- 

 tritive and therapeutic values of apples as carried on in this department, as well 

 as the wealth of information reported by other investigators. Much interest has 

 been shown in Massachusetts regarding the nutritive value of apples, both by the 

 fruit grower and by the consume i This interest has gone so far that some people 

 even appear to prefer to think of apples as a bottle of vitamin pills rather than as 

 an attractive and flavorful fruit. However, in all probability, apples will con- 

 tinue to maintain their popularity on a basis of their flavorful and refreshing 

 characteristics, with their nutritive value secondary in importance. 



^ Acknowledgment is due to the Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture for 

 their interest and assistance in the preparation of this bulletin. 



