Tomatoes sold in supermarkets can be made to taste better by dunking them in hot water before they ripen, a US government study has found.
The research raises hopes that tomatoes bought from shops could one day be as tasty as those straight off the vine. Typically tomatoes destined for supermarkets are picked while still green and coaxed to ripen while they are stored and transported at low temperatures.
However, chilling degrades their flavour, making supermarket tomatoes relatively tasteless compared with those sold on farms. But scientists from the US department of agriculture found that a simple treatment process can dramatically boost the flavour of transported tomatoes.
Dr Jinhe Bai said: “Ideally, tomatoes should be picked ripe and then sold immediately, as they are at farm stands. “To produce a better tasting tomato, we added a hot water pre-treatment step to the usual protocol that growers follow. We found that this pre-treatment step prevents flavour loss due to chilling.”
