Many say tomatoes have actually lost their flavor in the last 50 years. Consumers have been complaining that commercial tomato varieties don't seem to taste like the older varieties. Now, scientists are trying to fix that, but it may take time.
Farmers are getting paid for the weight they produce, disease resistance and firmness, and so they have favored larger varieties instead. This is the reason why grocery tomatoes' tastes just like water. According to The Verge, scientists are trying to put the taste back into grocery tomato by tinkering with its genetic recipe.
Scientists Identified Chemical Combinations To Make Tomatoes Taste Better Again
Scientists from the University of Florida said that they have identified the chemical combinations and genes to make tomatoes taste great again. But there is a catch - it will still be four years at least before they are available.
This recent study advised consumers to get the smaller tomatoes because they retain their taste compared to larger varieties. The scientists' clever breeding could restore the taste of larger tomatoes, Daily Mail Online reported. Experts have mapped 25 genetic variations affecting the flavor compounds they contain.
33 Chemicals Can Make Tomatoes Taste Better
Dr Harry Klee from the University of Florida said that they are fixing the damage that the last half century has caused, specifically to tomatoes. "We can make the supermarket tomato taste noticeably better," he added. His team tested the variations, also called alleles, by giving a panel of consumer 101 different varieties of tomato. They then measured the varieties that the panel liked best.
The result shows that there is a list of 33 chemicals, which people believe makes tomatoes better. This, in turn, will be used by scientists to cross-pollinate different tomato plants, creating tastier fruit but still of the same size and without affecting the number which are grown.
