The historical relationships among fruits, fruit juice, and the production of confectionery items is examined from Japanese and global perspectives. Specifically, the global perspective considers the history of Western confectionery while adding a professional perspective. First, the origin of sweetness – historically obtained from honey and fruits – was examined as this is considered the foundation of confectionery. Next, for a Japanese historical perspective, the origins of sweets in Japan was traced from the mythological period to the writings in the Kiki, under the titles Kasojin and “The ancestors of sweets”. For a global historical perspective, the field of Western confectionery was examined and categorized into confiserie, which can be translated as sugar confectionery, glacerie confections. Among these categories, fruit juice was most widely used in confiserie: for example, in Pate de Fruit (a jelly confectionery made with 100% fruit juice) and Guimauve (French-style marshmallow). Similarly, for glacerie (frozen confectionery) items, fruit juice is often used directly to produce a variety of rich-tasting frozen confections. In addition, in the field of patisserie, a new trend referred to as nouvelle patisserie has emerged in which fruit juice plays an important role and is used extensively to produce mousses with a light texture. To supplement these descriptions, sections titled “History of Sugar” and “Footprints of Frozen Sweets” have also been included.

The first type of confectionery is “patisserie”, which is a baked confectionery. In Japan, that alone means a cake shop. The second is “confiserie”. This is a confectionery that combines sugar with various things such as fruits. For example, if you combine sugar and cacao, you get chocolate. French confectionery shops make both “patisserie” and “confiserie”. The third type is “glaciere”, which is a frozen dessert represented by ice cream and sorbet. And finally, there is a “Viennoiserie” that overlaps with a bakery, where you can find croissants. We summarized the raw materials used in confectionery. One of the raw materials is fruit juice, most of which is manufactured by French companies. Fruit specialists hand-select the fruits and make purees, concentrates, coulis, and wholes. All are frozen. Japan has many delicious fruits. Considering the income of fruit producers in Japan, one idea is to produce and manufacture fruits and fruit juice for confectionery like in France.

We want to promote the health benefits of fruits by increasing fruit consumption. Findings from studies about the health benefits of fruits are found in the National Institute of Fruit Tree Science and five other institutes, and these studies depended on research funds from the fruit industry. One of the valuable discoveries of those studies is that there are fewer lifestyle-related diseases found in people who consistently eat fruit. Another major finding is that high serum β-cryptoxanthin is associated with lower risk for lifestyle-related diseases (osteoporosis, diabetes, liver dysfunction, metabolic syndrome, and arteriosclerosis) among Japanese subjects. We founded two volunteer associations where we try to think of effective ways to communicate the health benefits of fruits, so that people can understand that fruits are beneficial foods for health and that they will be healthy by eating a lot of fruits. We must absorb carotenoids from fruits because they act as antioxidants against oxidative stress.

The size of the market in Japan for fruit beverages that contain more than 10% fruit juice as the main ingredient is currently valued at approximately 300 billion yen. The author examined the status of raw fruit juice in Japan, as well as its production and consumption. In addition, changes in research on fruit juice and fruit beverages, and the activities of the Japan Fruit Juice Association, an industry group, are also discussed.

Concerns about damage to agricultural products due to global warming are increasing year by year. In apple cultivation, high temperatures cause defects in color and other characteristics, and warm weather in winter causes a decrease in cold resistance, which is associated with damage due to low temperatures and frost. In addition, damage due to storms and floods occurs frequently. In Nagano Prefecture, various fruit varieties are cultivated using a relay system. Therefore, harvesting is intermittent from July to December. Since the rate of maturation varies among cultivars, the degree of maturity and degree of damage also differ depending on the timing of the occurrence of natural disasters. Most harvested fruits are immature, and there are many problems with food safety and taste. On the other hand, immature fruits contain a lot of polyphenols, which are used as functional materials. Regarding climate change countermeasures, advances have been made in terms of forecasting, prevention, items, varieties, and cultivation techniques. However, no progress has been made in examining ways to use damaged agricultural products. In the future, it will be necessary for national and local governments, production areas, and processors to work together to examine the safety and utilization of damaged agricultural products.

Landslides and flooding caused by the western Japan torrential rains in July 2018 inflicted heavy damage on citrus cultivation in Ehime prefecture. The damage included not only the loss of citrus trees and soil, but also damage to the agricultural infrastructure such as the roads between fields, rail carriers, and irrigation systems. Three years have passed since the disaster. Restoration work for small- to middle-sized landslides has been progressing, and new tree plantings have been started. However, after planting, it takes 5 years before harvesting can start, and 10 years before production can return to pre-disaster levels. Restoration work has not yet begun for large-sized landslides, but will be completed about 10 years later. Although it is difficult to secure an agricultural income during this period, a young farmers group has stared nursing trees for the future completion of the restoration work.

The superiority of domestic fruits, seaberry, Hippophae rhamnoides L., which was launched in 2005 in domestic commercial cultivation, was verified by analyzing component data and oil component data etc. and comparing with foreign seaberries.

Hokkaido has the highest harvest of fruitlets such as seaberry, haskap and aronia in Japan. Haskap and raspberry are native to Hokkaido, but blueberry, aronia and seaberry were introduced from abroad in the middle of the 20th century. The functional components of these fruits, such as polyphenols, are now attracting attention and their production is increasing. The Education and Research Center for Antioxidant Function has been analyzing and studying the antioxidant function of food materials produced in Hokkaido, and has revealed that many fruitlets have high antioxidant value. I will introduce the attractiveness of the antioxidant function of various fruitlets in Hokkaido such as seaberry, haskap, aronia.

Watermelon is thought to have originated in the Kalahari Desert and neighboring savanna zones in South Africa. The cultivation of watermelon was depicted in an Egyptian fresco 4000 years ago. Watermelon were introduced to Japan in the early Edo period. Watermelon called “Yamatosuika”, a natural cross between existing varieties and a new variety derived from America, received good publicity in the early Showa period. The Nara Prefecture Agricultural Experimental Station and Mr. Zentaro Hagihara, a private breeder, bred excellent varieties from the Taisho to the Showa period. Recently, using DNA markers based on genomic analysis technology, the breeding of watermelon and genetic purity inspection of F₁ seeds has been performed more efficiently. Watermelon contains citrulline showing vasodilating action and lycopene having antioxidant ability. It is important to develop a method using the ingredients effectively.

Progressive freeze-concentration (PFC) was established as a much more flexible method regarding its operation, compared with the conventional equilibrium-suspension-crystallization method, which is limited to only continuous large-scale operation. PFC effectively concentrated water melon and melon juices, which are known to be difficult to concentrate because of their high heat-sensitivity and high viscosity. The concentrates were of high quality, retaining original flavor profiles, and are expected to be utilized as newly available foodstuffs.

The Japanese pear (Pyrus pyrifolia Nakai) is one of the most commercialized fruit trees in Japan and it has been consumed for a long time. The concept of pear cultivars was first developed in the middle of Edo Era (1603-1887). Commercial pear orchards were established in the late Edo Era and over 1000 cultivar name have since been recorded. ‘Taihei’ was the leading cultivar in 1890-1900, followed by ‘Kozo’ in 1900-1910. ‘Chojuro’ became the leading cultivar from the 1910s to the late 1940s due to its high productivity and disease resistance, but ‘Nijisseiki’ replaced it until the late 1980s, as this cultivar had superior flesh texture despite its extreme susceptibility to black spot disease. The systematic breeding program of the Horticultural Research Station [currently National Institute of Fruit Tree and Tea Science (NIFTS), National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO)] began in 1935 and it mainly aimed to improve fruit quality by focusing on flesh texture and black spot disease. As a result, cultivars ‘Kosui’ and ‘Hosui’ were released in 1959 and 1972, respectively. ‘Kosui’ became a leading cultivar in the late 1980s and ‘Hosui’ became second in the beginning of the 1990s. Current breeding at NIFTS uses DNA marker-assisted selection for combining superior fruit quality with traits related to labor and cost reduction, multiple disease resistance, and self-compatibility.

The way of use of grape is divided into two types, i.e. table grape (eat in raw) and wine grape. In Japan, table grape left unsold are used to process to wine in history. But the quality required for table grape and wine grape is completely different. To make good quality of wine, many attentions are paid in recent grape growing. Sugar content is very important because it is converted to ethanol by fermentation. Malic and tartaric acid content is also important for sourness of resultant wine. But these compounds can easily adjust in its concentration by adding to grape juice/must. Besides these compounds, aroma compounds affect greatly to the wine quality. Aroma compounds have volatility and easily escape from liquid phase during wine-making. This effect partially causes the difference between smell of grape and wine. From this point of view, aroma-precursors considered to be more important. Aroma precursor is converted to aroma compounds during fermentation. For example, glucosidic aroma compounds have weak in smell and difficult to evaporate because of its solubility to aqueous phase by the effect of glucose attached. Once the glucose moiety is hydrolyzed with glucosidase during fermentation, it is changed to aroma compounds and is smell. Amino acids in grape berry are assimilated by yeast, and produce higher alcohol. Amino acids have no smell in grape, but their amount and composition will affect wine quality. Other aroma compounds precursors are also taken account of their concentration in grape at harvest for good quality winemaking.

Grapes (Vitis spp) are a major fruit crop worldwide and are consumed as table grapes, wine, and raisins. Currently, the leading grape cultivars in the world are European (Vitis vinifera L.), and account for the majority of the worldwide production. European grapes, however, are highly susceptible to fungal diseases and to berry cracking when grown in wet climates. In eastern United States, breeders have attempted to improve the native American species through hybridization between European grapes and native species such as V. labrusca L. The interspecific hybrid cultivars derived from V. labrusca are classified asAmerican grapes (V. labruscana Bailey). In general, the fruit quality of European grapes is superior to American grapes for table and wine use. During the Meiji era, many European and American grape cultivars were introduced to Japan from foreign countries. However, the cultivation of European grapes failed due to severe diseases and berry cracking caused by Japan’s wet climate. As a result, American grapes such as ‘Campbell Early’, ‘Niagara’, and ‘Delaware’ were selected. Japanese grape breeders have developed many cultivars such as ‘Muscat Bailey A’, ‘Neomuscat’, ‘Kyoho’, ‘Pione’, ‘Kaiji’ and so on, using European and American cultivars as the parent stock. Recently, cultivation of ‘Shine Muscat’ has rapidly increased.

Persimmon is well known to be a polyphenol-rich fruit. The polyphenol fraction (PPfr) was obtained from persimmon fruits using a novel method, and its effect on postprandial blood glucose levels in rats and humans was examined. PPfr contained 20% carbohydrate and 70% polyphenol which consisted of epicatechin : epicatechin gallate : epigallocatechin : epigallocatechin gallate at a ratio of 1 : 1 : 3 : 2. In vitro studies revealed that lowering effect of PPfr on blood glucose after carbohydrate ingestion was attributable to the inhibition of digestive enzymes, such as alpha-amylase and maltase, as well as the inhibition of glucose absorption through the digestive tract. Following the administration of 3 g PPfr to 10 healthy human volunteers with 150 kcal maltose, postprandial blood glucose was significantly lowered compared with placebo. These results suggest that PPfr from persimmon fruits was useful for blood glucose control and the primary prevention of diabetes.