Tasteless Tomatoes

Today's interesting fact has to do with tasteless tomatoes.

Many people complain that the tomatoes we get and eat have no taste.  There are two good reasons why we have tasteless tomatoes.  One has to do with tomato suppliers, wholesalers and retailers. The other has to do with us, the consumers.

First we need to consider the fact that tomatoes in their raw form, have no flavour, no taste.

Many would dispute this but... until the juice and the flesh of the tomato is mixed, either in cutting, mashing or mixing, there is no flavour.  This has been shown by taste testing of the flesh and liquid that have been carefully separated without mixing the two components.  They have found that within the liquid part of the tomato, there is an enzyme that, when mixed with the flesh of the tomato, generates a chemical reaction that creates the flavour that we taste when we bite into it.

And this enzyme is why sometimes tomatoes have no taste, because is gets destroyed when it is left at temperatures below 4 degrees centigrade.  The longer it the tomato is kept below this temperature, the more of the enzyme is destroyed.  When you consider that the optimum temperature range for perishable food storage is 3 to 5 °C (37 to 41 °F), and that most refrigerators tend to be set to between 3 and 5 °C, you where the problem is.

Some suppliers, wholesalers and retailers keep their tomatoes in large fridges to keep them from going ripe too soon, and thereby destroy the enzyme before we get it.  And some of us, immediately on getting home from the retailer put our tomatoes into the fridge.

So if you want tasty tomatoes, don't refrigerate them.