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Today, we talk about tomatoes that are common on the table.
Tomatoes, also known as tomatoes, are a solanaceous plant native to the American continent.
Although it is an imported product, it has quickly become the favorite of the Chinese people with its characteristics of high quality taste, rich nutrition, versatile eating method, and ease of planting.
This liking has spawned a huge industrial chain. According to statistics from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, China has long been the world's largest producer of tomatoes.
In 2019, China's tomato production reached 60 million tons, equivalent to the sum of other major producing areas.
It may be the deep responsibility of love, and the relevant content entitled "Why tomatoes can't eat the taste of childhood" recently rushed to the list of major hot searches.
Even CCTV has released a video to explain the reasons for the change in the taste of tomatoes.
In fact, there has long been a discussion about the flavor of tomatoes not being as good as before.
Every once in a while it is widely discussed and resonates with many consumers.
Most of the users' replies are nostalgia for the soft texture, sweet and sour taste, and rich aroma of tomatoes when they were young, and ridicule the decline in the flavor of tomatoes at present.
But there are also some people with ulterior motives who maliciously spread rumors that "the current unpalatable tomatoes are genetically modified", and for example, arbitrarily say that "tomatoes become unpalatable all because of the use of drugs and hormones", "the nutritional content of tomatoes that become unpalatable is not as good as before"...
These voices have led some suspicious friends to start worrying about the safety of current tomatoes.
Today, the rumor-busting jun invited professional agricultural experts to talk to you about "why are tomatoes not delicious?" ”
Is there something wrong with my sense of taste?
No, the tomato flavor has indeed changed.
If you also think the tomatoes are not delicious. Congratulations, your sense of taste is very sensitive. The taste of tomatoes has indeed changed compared to the past.
The core reason for this problem lies in the current change of the main planting varieties at the end of domestic tomato planting and production.
At present, domestic tomato varieties are mainly hard tomatoes.
Compared with traditional tomato varieties, hard tomatoes have thicker skins and stronger fruit support.
This makes hard tomatoes have many advantages such as high yield, resistance to transportation, longer storage time, etc., and are more suitable for the current market demand.
However, after hard tomatoes became the main cultivar, more and more consumers felt that the flavor of tomatoes was not as good as before.
But for a long time, this was only the "feeling" of a small number of people, and it was not ironclad evidence of the lack of tomato flavor.
Until 2017, a scientific research team led by Chinese scientist Huang Sanwen published an academic article in the journal Science, which truly and rigorously revealed the reasons for the lack of tomato flavor and proved that consumers' "feelings" were right.
Because the flavor of tomatoes is a "feeling" that is not easy to quantify, the research is more difficult, so the research of researcher Huang Sanwen took 4 years to complete.
The research team first conducted several rigorous tasting experiments on 100 tomatoes by forming a tasting team of 170 people, and identified 33 substances that directly affect the flavor of tomatoes.
The research team then conducted a comprehensive and systematic analysis of the flavor substances of nearly 400 tomato varieties from all over the world.
It was found that the current main tomato varieties were missing some of the gene loci that control tomato flavor compared with traditional tomato varieties.
This resulted in a significant reduction in the content of 13 flavor substances, which eventually led to a decrease in the flavor of the tomatoes.
But as mentioned earlier, there is a gain where there is a loss. At the cost of some of the loss of flavor, the breeding of tomatoes has developed in a high-yielding, storage-resistant wind direction. It is positive for both consumers and tomato farmers.
In addition to the difference in varieties, the following factors can also affect the flavor
As mentioned earlier, the reason why tomatoes taste much worse is because of the difference in varieties.
But in fact, the same kind of tomato will also be due to differences in growth environment, planting conditions and other factors, resulting in taste differentiation. To this end, researchers at home and abroad have also done a lot of scientific research on this.
When other influencing factors remain unchanged, in the process of planting and producing tomatoes:
Tomatoes that have long used chemical fertilizers and pesticides have a worse flavor than tomatoes that use organic fertilizers for scientific fertilization.
Extensive planting management (including plant management, fertilization management, water management, etc.) is worse than that of tomatoes with fine planting management.
Ripening with ethylene is worse than naturally grown tomatoes.
Harvested early is less flavorful than naturally ripe tomatoes.
The environment (including light, moisture, temperature, carbon dioxide content, etc.) cannot meet the need for tomatoes to grow more than tomatoes grow under suitable conditions.
The purpose of talking about these is to tell you that the flavor of the current main tomato varieties is also divided into high and low, and without talking about the old varieties, we can also eat tomatoes with relatively good flavor.
As for pesticides and hormones, as a consumer, you don't need to worry too much. On the one hand, because the crops purchased from the normal way have passed strict quarantine tests. In the vast majority of cases, there is no impact on health.
On the other hand, in a sense, the use of pesticides is a problem that contemporary people cannot escape, if you do not use pesticides, let alone delicious tomatoes, filling your stomach is a problem.
Flavor declines and nutrition decreases?
No, tomatoes are still nutritious.
In the discussion about the flavor of tomatoes on the Internet, many friends also extended to the problem of nutritional composition, feeling that the nutritional composition will decline while the flavor of tomatoes is missing.
There are even artificial rumors that most of the current tomato varieties are genetically modified, here we do not discuss the quality of genetic modifications, only two points can make this rumor self-defeating.
First of all, genetically modified tomatoes cannot be grown commercially in China at present.
Secondly, all genetically modified agricultural products or agricultural and sideline processed products sold in China must be marked in a conspicuous position for consumers to identify.
It is also nonsense to say whether the nutrients will also decrease after the flavor of tomatoes declines. Simply changing varieties and changing cultivation techniques cannot change the nutritional composition of crops.
In particular, according to the data released by the "Chinese Food Composition Table", the latest version and the previous version have not decreased in the nutrients of tomatoes.
Therefore, you can eat tomatoes with confidence, its nutrition is beyond your imagination.
There may not be much difference in nutritional composition between different tomato varieties, but tomatoes have a lot of advantages compared to other agricultural products.
Here to take the well-known vitamin A as an example, each 100g of tomatoes contains 92mg of vitamin A, which is much higher than the vitamin A content of fruits such as watermelon and kiwi fruit and meat products such as cattle and sheep.
In addition, tomatoes also contain functional nutrients such as lycopene, retinol, riboflavin, and niacin, which are beneficial to health for long-term consumption.
The taste of childhood, sooner or later will come back
In fact, not only tomatoes, the tastes of many crops in life have changed, and the causes are similar to the decline in tomato flavor.
For example, in recent years, the much-criticized kiwifruit and black Brin have dropped sharply due to the quality of early harvesting; the excessive pursuit of production of watermelons, peaches, and apples is no longer as delicious as before; the shorter time out of the barn has made chicken, duck, pig, sheep and other meats lose their original flavor.
In fact, the market demand has been changing, when more and more people criticize the decline in the flavor of agricultural products, it proves that the consumer market has a greater and greater demand for the flavor of agricultural products.
In fact, the flavor of agricultural products has been looking for, and there is the aforementioned Huang Sanwen scientific research team, who are restoring the original taste of crops from the perspective of agricultural technology breeding.
There are also some farmer friends who see the market demand for flavor and are developing in this direction.
Resumed planting crops with low yields but good taste. Take a walk to the farms around the city and believe there will be some different discoveries.
In recent years, under the rapid development of the live broadcast and logistics industries, agricultural products with flavor advantages but not resistant to storage and transportation have also become feasible for long-distance consumption.
If you want to savor the taste of childhood, you can also go to some agricultural products live broadcast room for a turn.
Finally, our demand and recognition of flavored agricultural products is the most effective driving force for more agricultural products to return to their original taste.
Resources: tieman d, zhu g, resende m f r, et al. a chemical genetic roadmap to improved tomato flavor[j]. science, 2017, 355(6323): 391-394. Huo J Y, Liu J, Feng H, et al. Research progress on flavor quality of tomato fruit[j]. China Vegetables, 2005(2): 34-36. XU Aidong. Research progress on the effect of ethyl ripening on the nutritional quality of tomato fruit[j]. Northern Horticulture, 2011(10): 181-184. PAN Ye, XIE Zhenqing, JIN Juan. Effects of Fish Protein Organic Fertilizer on Sweetness and Flavor of Tomato Fruit[j]. Agricultural Engineering Technology (Greenhouse Horticulture), 41(10): 62. Rui W J, Wang X M, Gao Y M, et al. Research progress on environmental influences on tomato fruit quality and flavor[j]. Journal of Anhui Agricultural Sciences, 2017, 45(6): 34-36. YANG Yuexin. Chinese Food Ingredient List, 6th Edition, Vol. 1[m].Peking University Medical Press, 2018