LIVONIA, MI – Ever wonder why mass-produced tomatoes we buy at the big supermarkets taste terrible? Often times they taste like the cardboard boxes they are shipped in. Instead of a deep rich fruity flavor they are very bland, tasteless, and otherwise unappealing in nature. That is partly based on a genetic mutation according to researchers. There is a process that happens in these tomatoes that reduces the amount of sugar and other compounds. You will notice the skin on these tomatoes lack something too. Days after you buy them they kind of turn mushy and lack a certain amount of flavor..

Typically tomatoes are picked when they are green and shipped off before they have a chance to ripen.  But did you know that the nutrition doesn’t even come into the plant at its full potential until the last five days? This means that the tomatoes you are buying have very little nutritional value to them. For those who are taking their health seriously this is a big  - big problem.

This disrupts the production of an essential protein which is responsible for the fruit’s sugar content. So we get this light green color and a sometimes flavorless fruit product. This takes the joy out of tomato consumption. Then the other harmful factor is that the tomatoes are chilled in a large refrigeration containers prior to shipping. This zaps out the fruits natural character, color, and flavor.

There are two things you can do that can help.

1.    Dunk your store bought tomatoes in warm water as soon as you get them home.  This prevents the fruit from becoming completely flavorless. It will actually restore the flavor compounds and make them taste like they came off the vine. While chilling suppresses production of nitrogen and oxygen – heated warm water acts just the opposite. This will allow the 13 aroma components to work together creating great tomato flavor.

2.    The other method is to just put the new store bought tomatoes into a brown paper sack for a day or two. This works like a charm every time. The secret lies in the ethylene gas that is created in the bag itself. My grandmother used to swear by this technique and did it for years. You just place the tomatoes in the bag and set it on the counter and let science do its thing.