Choosing tomatoes for color reduces fruit’s flavor, study finds

By Roberta Kwok

Web edition: July 20, 2012

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Modern tomatoes (light green fruits at right) lack the version of a gene that keeps them flavorful. The correct gene yields a yummier tomato with dark green patch at top (fruits at left).

Credit: Courtesy of Hakan Aktas

The tomatoes your great-grandparents ate probably tasted little like the ones you eat today. The fruit used to have more flavor. A lot more flavor. In fact, tomatoes “were once so flavorful that you could take one in your hand and eat it straight away just like we regularly eat apples or peaches,” according to plant scientist Alan Bennett. He belongs to a team of international scientists who now think they know one reason why the fruit has lost so much flavor.

Visit the new Science News for Kids website and read the full story: Tomatoes’ tasteless green gene