A genetic mutation introduced into tomatoes to make them ripen more uniformly might have inadvertently reduced some of the sugar content that makes them taste good, a team of researchers from the U.S., Spain and Argentina has found.
In traditional and heirloom tomatoes, the green colour of an unripe fruit is not uniform, with darker shades of green concentrated around the stem and lighter shades at the bottom. That means by the time they arrive on store shelves, they are equally unevenly coloured - though in shades of red, not green.
Beginning about 70 years ago, however, tomato growers, together with breeders and seed companies, tried to remedy this uneven colouring by creating varieties of tomatoes that are a uniform light green at the time of harvesting and that ripen to an evenly distributed red en route to the grocery store.
Their intentions were not entirely aesthetic and had much to do with improving harvesting techniques, said University of California Davis plant scientist Ann Powell, the lead author of the study, published online Thursday in the journal Science.
"By having a uniform colour when they're green, it's easier to look at a field of tomatoes and see how mature they are - the entire surface of the fruit is one colour, and that colour is actually a little bit lighter than the leaves. So it's a little bit easier to say, 'Oh, OK, these guys are at this stage, and we need to harvest in three days'," Powell said.
Supermarket tomato's even colour comes at expense of taste | Sympatico.ca Sync.ca
When will man learn to stop playing with nature. They seem to think they can improve on nature and we end up with a evenly red tomato with no taste. BAH!!!!!
We wonder where all the cancer comes from maybe they could use some of the billions of dollars gather for research should be used to check our food supply.
In traditional and heirloom tomatoes, the green colour of an unripe fruit is not uniform, with darker shades of green concentrated around the stem and lighter shades at the bottom. That means by the time they arrive on store shelves, they are equally unevenly coloured - though in shades of red, not green.
Beginning about 70 years ago, however, tomato growers, together with breeders and seed companies, tried to remedy this uneven colouring by creating varieties of tomatoes that are a uniform light green at the time of harvesting and that ripen to an evenly distributed red en route to the grocery store.
Their intentions were not entirely aesthetic and had much to do with improving harvesting techniques, said University of California Davis plant scientist Ann Powell, the lead author of the study, published online Thursday in the journal Science.
"By having a uniform colour when they're green, it's easier to look at a field of tomatoes and see how mature they are - the entire surface of the fruit is one colour, and that colour is actually a little bit lighter than the leaves. So it's a little bit easier to say, 'Oh, OK, these guys are at this stage, and we need to harvest in three days'," Powell said.
Supermarket tomato's even colour comes at expense of taste | Sympatico.ca Sync.ca
When will man learn to stop playing with nature. They seem to think they can improve on nature and we end up with a evenly red tomato with no taste. BAH!!!!!
We wonder where all the cancer comes from maybe they could use some of the billions of dollars gather for research should be used to check our food supply.
