Breeding strawberry F1-hybrids for vitamin-C and sugar content

Nutritional and health related aspects of food products have become a major issue with consumers. A breeding program should try to anticipate these developments in society. For this reason it was decided to investigate the factors which determine nutritional and health related quality in strawberry. Analysis of vitamin-C, sucrose, glucose and fructose as the main factors were conducted in an efficient and reliable way. A broad genetic base of strawberry varieties with a raised level of vitamin-C and sugars was collected. Over many years, large numbers of fruit samples were analysed in our breeding programme. In this paper the development of breeding material is demonstrated in breeding schemes and by data of vitamin-C and sugar levels. The first strawberry F1-hybrids with improved vitamin-C and sugar content are presented.