Re: Brix

It's worse than that.  People take different Brix readings and make wide generalizations based on flawed assumptions.  For example if we imagine the ideal apples and we take their Brix readings we would note that Royal Gala, Macintosh, Red Delicious, Green Delicious, Washington, Granny Smith all have different Brix readings.

Naturally some varieties would be high, some low and some in the middle.  Yet based solely on the Brix numbers, people would conclude that those with high readings are somehow superior to the others.  This of course would be false even though that in this example we are comparing Apples to Apples.  

Now imagine how little information when we apply Brix scale to other things.   If we can't even rely on Brix to help us distinguish among apples, what reason is there in thinking they can provide information when using it to compare "Apples to oranges".  So we could have a reading for some food which is low, yet it is discarded without the consideration that is is supposed to be low. 

There is also the fact that a refractometer will be influenced by many factors which people may not even be aware of.  Some that come to mind include temperature, concentration, salinity and many others.   So when we get a reading X, unless you are meticulous and have knowledge of analytical chemistry there is no way to know if the high values come from A, B, C.... dissolved compounds temperature, concentration. various oils, ketones, aldehydes, acids, esters.  And to top it off, unless you have recorded all the readings you have taken for Z there is no way for the average consumer to know if the reading is normal, low, high or whatever.

Like you wrote it is "of extremely limited value"  to all but the meticulous record keeper.
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