Can we breed a healthier strawberry and claim it?

Commercial strawberries (Fragaria × ananassa) are appreciated by consumers because of the attractiveness and eating appeal. Strawberries are one of the most investigated for its nutritional and nutraceutical properties. The contents of health related phytochemicals vary depending on the strawberry genotype. Cultivation conditions also affect the concentration of fruit bioactive compounds and specific cultivation system can enhance their contents. The unawareness of the consumers towards strawberry nutritional/nutraceutical features still causes a low interest towards fruits characterized for their high health-related benefits. Moreover, growers still do not recognize the benefit of growing new strawberry cultivars selected for their composition of health-promoting phytochemicals. A strawberry breeding program, including inter-specific back-crosses, is now producing new genotypes with increased vitamin C (up to 2-fold the contents commonly available in the commercial cultivars), folates and phenols combined to important commercial traits (yield, size, firmness, acidity, sugar content, etc.). From this program is expected the release of new cultivars able to produce fruits with high content of bioactive compounds that may contribute to health, wellness and reduced disease risk. The ultimate goal of the breeding program is to properly obtain and integrate new scientific knowledge from genetic, agronomic and biomedical studies that may bring acceptance from food agencies (e.g., the European Food Safety Agency – EFSA) of specific health claims on new strawberry cultivars.