For a time, growers who wanted to differentiate their produce in the marketplace often used the label “organic” to suggest better quality to consumers. Now that “organic” has become a federal program that many growers aren’t willing to participate in, growers who want to focus on flavor can use Brix as a marketing tool.

Just as “organic” required consumer education 15 years ago, “Brix” is similarly unfamiliar to most people. But that may be changing fast, as an increasing number of West Coast growers and supermarkets advertise the Brix of produce as a standard of quality.

Brix is a measure of the dissolved solids, including sugars, vitamins, minerals, and amino acids, in plant sap. Generally speaking, it is considered a measure of the sweetness or flavor of fresh produce.

“Brix is a good way to measure the success of your crop and the soil it grows in, and for a market farmer there is a one-to-one correlation with flavor,” said Jon Rowley, a Seattle food consultant who has done as much as anyone to bring Brix into the lexicon of consumers.

“Farmers who know they have the best-tasting carrots in the market on a given day can take that flavor superiority to the bank! What consumer wouldn’t pay for the best if they really knew it to be the best?”

Rowley, who is well known in Northwest food circles for popularizing Copper River salmon, turned his attention to peaches a few years ago. He went in search of the perfect peach, traveling more than 2,000 miles and tasting peaches from dozens of farms, until he found peaches that measured up to his standard of flavor. He struck a deal with a Seattle supermarket to sponsor a “Peach-o-rama” promotion. During Peach-o-rama, Rowley talked a lot about Brix, educating produce buyers, food writers and consumers. Most supermarket peaches, the kind you’re supposed to let ripen in a paper bag, have a Brix of about 11. Rowley found that, although hard peaches do soften in a bag, they don’t get any sweeter. He and Thriftway promoted their peaches as having a Brix of at least 13. And a few varieties were advertised as having a Brix of 17-18, which was defined as “an unbelievable peach. Almost goes beyond the human threshold for pleasure.”

The Peach-o-rama promotion was wildly successful. The store sold 62 tons of peaches in eight weeks.

Other uses of Brix
Brix is not new in the produce industry; in fact, it has been around for more than a century. Professor A.F.W. Brix was a German chemist who discovered in 1870 that the sweetness of grape juice could be measured before the juice was made into wine. Being able to judge the quality of wine before it was bottled was a tremendous advance for wine makers in the 19th century, and Brix’s contribution to the vintner’s art was celebrated by naming the measurement process after him. Brix is still used in wine making. It also is required for processing fruit and for some exported fruits.

Brix is readily measured with a refractometer, a hand-held instrument that costs about $125. A refractometer is an optical device that takes advantage of the fact that light passing through a liquid bends, or refracts, according to Rex Harrill of Keedysville, Maryland, an expert in Brix. “Thicker, that is, more dense liquids refract more. A calibrated hand refractometer allows determination of a degree brix when you place a drop of juice on the prism and flatten it with the attached cover plate.”
Brix can vary considerably among fruits and vegetables. The average strawberry has a Brix of 10 whereas an excellent strawberry might be 16, but there are reports of Virginia-grown strawberries with a Brix of 28. Interestingly, Brix measurement of vegetables can indicate greater sweetness than any fruits. Sweet corn measurements of 24 Brix have been recorded – higher than the sweetest grapes, oranges or pineapples. Carrots can have a Brix of 18 – the same as those exquisite peaches mentioned above. Of course, sugar is only one of the components of plant juice measured by Brix, but all those components make up flavor.
Rowley predicts a growing awareness of Brix among consumers. He says he already knows some chefs and produce buyers who own refractometers and use them before deciding whether to buy. “The Japanese have rejected American tomatoes because they weren’t sweet enough,” Rowley said. “Japanese buyers are pretty hip on plant sugars.”

Apart from consumer interest, Brix is increasingly important to growers who consider it a reflection of soil quality, cold hardiness and even pest resistance. In 2003, you’ll read about how growing conditions affect Brix, and what you can do to improve Brix in your produce.