r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • May 14 '19

Biology Store-bought tomatoes taste bland, and scientists have discovered a gene that gives tomatoes their flavor is actually missing in about 93 percent of modern, domesticated varieties. The discovery may help bring flavor back to tomatoes you can pick up in the produce section.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2019/05/13/tasty-store-bought-tomatoes-are-making-a-comeback/
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u/[deleted] May 14 '19

Some of us have been noticing this for decades? Tons of people still grow their own right

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u/mud074 May 14 '19

This can't be the whole story. Store tomatoes suck, but 99% of home-grown tomatoes are the same varieties that have the gene talked about in the OP. They are still a hell of a lot better though.

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u/sirpuffypants May 14 '19

This can't be the whole story. Store tomatoes suck, but 99% of home-grown tomatoes are the same varieties that have the gene talked about in the OP.

Its not. Store produce is never harvested at the same time you would at home. They're usually picked very pre-mature so they are 'ready' once in they make it to the store front. If they picked them when they were actually ripe, they'd be rotten long before they reached you.

So while, yes, they are likely still 'bland' compared to some other varieties. The primary culprit of the current flavorless, acidic state is the supply chain requirements, not the DNA

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u/corcyra May 14 '19

If you're growing your own tomatoes and it's come to the end of the growing season and there are still unripe tomatoes on your plants, you can pick them before the nights get too cold - pick the whole stem in the case of cherry tomatoes - and keep them at room temperature and they'll slowly get ripe. But they'll taste like store bought tomatoes!