Scientists Say Something Is Very Wrong With The Tomato

valley ranch

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Scientists Say Something Is Very Wrong With The Tomato
Most people looking for a good love apple “end up with crap,” a researcher says.


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Many of the tomatoes eaten these days are too big, too firm and just plain dull compared with those from a half-century ago, according to new research.

In a paper published Thursday in the journal Science, a team of researchers say they analyzed the genetic code of nearly 400 varieties of tomatoes ― from the common red supermarket types to the funky heirlooms found in farmers markets. Led by Harry J. Klee, a professor of horticultural sciences at the University of Florida, the team found many of this generation’s tomatoes have lost key elements that make them taste, well, like a tomato.

To know what makes a good love apple, Klee said, you really have to understand three things that go into the vegetable’s flavor profile: sugar for sweetness, acid for the sour tang, and dozens of “volatiles,” or aroma compounds, that make up the euphoric, tomatoey scent.

“The tomato is unlike some fruits and vegetables in that there’s no one compound that I’d give you that you’d smell and say, ‘that’s tomato.’ Bananas, strawberries I could give you one compound and you’d know,” he said. “You’ve got sugars providing the sweetness, you’ve got acids counterbalancing and 25 or more volatile chemicals that are the aroma of the tomato. Without those you have no flavor, it’d just be completely bland.”

Unfortunately, Klee and his team found, vegetable breeders have grown varieties of tomatoes over the past few decades that are big and firm (and great for shipping), but missing many of these aroma compounds that make for a good bruschetta. Klee said what may have started as the loss of one volatile here and another there quickly cascaded into a flavorless, bland orb not worth its salt.


“If you compare tomato flavor to a symphony orchestra ... you’ve got a piece of music where you’ve got all these different parts to it. If you remove one or two instruments, it still sounds pretty much the same,” he said. “If you slowly remove instruments you might even be fooled that it’s still good, but over time you say ‘wait a minute, it’s just not right.’”

One big exception to the sad state of the average beefsteak is the resurgence of so-called heirloom varieties seen in farmers markets and upscale grocery stores. Those vegetables are often grown using generations-old seeds, selected for their flavor above all else. But they come at a premium.

Klee said a well-known, flavorful variety, the Campari tomato, can cost nearly four times the price of a regular tomato in his state of Florida. However, “most people aren’t willing to pay that difference,” he said, and “they end up with crap.”

All is not lost, however.

Researchers say most breeders haven’t had access to expensive equipment that can gauge the tastiness of a tomato. Using the new data, farmers can opt to plant vegetables prized for their flavor, rather than appearance, and expand on a $2 billion annual market for the product in the U.S. alone.

“We can easily push it back that 50 years and recapture a good deal of the flavor without compromising the modern tomato at all,” Klee said. “It’ll be much, much better than what’s out there today.”
 
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flowerbug

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alas, i can only smell and taste just small bits of them now, but i fully agree.

we grow beefsteaks every season and have been happy with them. a good year is 20-30lbs of fruit per plant even with the late blight that usually gets them. this past year we probably had about 15 lbs of fruit per plant.

we used to grow sweet 100s for cherry tomatoes and they are so sweet and delicious off the vine i've probably eaten a few thousand pounds of those. any extras we had we'd throw in with the beefsteaks when we juiced them and it would give them a little bump in sweetness.

alas, the one time i juiced the sweet 100s alone the taste was very blah.

my one season where i wanted to try other varieties wasn't very good and so i was told to shut up and be happy with the beefsteaks.
 

Fred DeFelice

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I have harvested my Campari seeds from the very tomatoes I buy at the super market, however you have to dry them out completely before you plant them. I usually take a flat about 18x 24 inches and fill it with a good soil mixture and plant about two or three seeds in each place and fill that flat with how many I can place in there without over crowding. This will allow me to take the strongest one out for replanting. I recently purchased from Home Depot pouches that are made from recycled water battles that are 10 gallon and have very sturdy handles so you can move them around if you want. Other folks I know have used them for several years and they hold up pretty well. These pouches breath and any over watering can leech out. These plants can grow six to eight feet tall so make sure you provide stakes before they get much bigger. The plant produces six, eight and more tomatoes in a cluster. The product is called Root Pouch. You might be able to purchase them directly from the manufacturer.Good luck with your Campari’s. You will have so many to share
 

Ridgerunner

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The ones that get me are the plums. If you eat one form the store you can't understand why people bother. Totally tasteless. Frost plays havoc with me getting any plums because they bloom so early, but a good ripe plum, really ripe, is just something else. But when they are ripe you are not going to package and ship them in mass. There is no relationship between a truly ripe tree ripened plum and what they sell in the store.

Of course I could say the same type of thing about strawberries. Others have said it about tomatoes, I'm not going to argue.
 

majorcatfish

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Why does store fruits taste like nothing...
A... they are hot house grown
B... they are picked once they turn color and they are shipped or put into cold storage. rip fruits do not ship well.... it’s about the almighty dollar from the grower to the store..

this is why you hear the 40% of food grown is thrown away ... well dah it’s not edible
 

catjac1975

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I saw tomatoes beingpicked in Florida. The foliage was sprayed with herbicide so the green tomatoes were easy to see and pick. The tomatoes were green and all the same size.
They must have been sending them the factory for gassing. Gross.
 

baymule

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We hate store bought tomatoes so much that I dehydrate our tomatoes for use in salads in the winter. We pick them off salads when we eat out. Yuck. :sick
 

Fred DeFelice

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Publix in Riverview Fl.has the very worst produce dept I have ever seen. The fruit is priced so high and most of it is always so ripe and mushy. I hate shopping there. They rip you off and the products a so bad.
 
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