Thanis Lim

All Rounder Chef and Food Journalist

Purple Tomato?

While hunting around for interesting food ideas, I stumbled across some interesting piece of news. Scientists nowadays are always trying to create new breeds of foods for us to choose from. Seedless watermelons anyone? Most of you have probably seen VeGood's Purple Carrot Juice too and there's even Orange Cauliflower already. Now they are close to putting a new hybrid tomato into our dinner plates: The Purple Tomato! *insert dramatic background music here* The picture below is not exactly what it's gonna look like but it should be something around that.


"Oregon State University researchers are fine-tuning a purple tomato, a new blend of colors and nutrients. The skin is as dark as an eggplant. But it doesn't just look cool, it could be better for you. The novel pigment contains the same phytochemical found in blueberries that is thought to reduce the risk of cancer and heart disease. Six years in the making, the purple hybrid could hit salad plates in two years". -- Physorg.com

They are still working on a the taste of the fruit at the moment though

"It will be the first true purple tomato, Myers said, although a few heirlooms offer whispers of a muddy purple caused when pink fruit meets green skin. Local tasters give mixed reviews, but researchers are working on a cross with the popular Sungold cherry tomatoes to boost the flavor. That hybrid won't be ready for several years."
-- Physorg.com

It will be interesting to sample how they tastes like after crossing with cherry tomatoes. Yum. And they won't have any anti-genetic enviromentalists screaming bloody "YOU ARE PLAYING GOD" because purple tomatoes were always there, it's just that they are not grown for the market.

"Hundreds of years ago, explorers discovered purple tomatoes in the wild, but the species never made it to the table because the fruit was small and some were poisonous, as all tomatoes once were thought to be. In the 1960s and 1970s, scientists collected seeds from purple tomatoes and bred them with modern hybrids, making them safe to eat. The research lagged until Oregon State graduate student Carl Jones resumed the work in 2000 on a hunch about the tomatoes' nutritional value". -- Physorg.com

That means I can add more colours to decorating my plate. People like to use tomatoes as garnish and with the new colour, it will allow more creativity. Would you wanna sample a purple tomato? I know I would.....provided it's not those poison varities from the wild. My cast iron stomach won't survive that.

Full article here


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