Tomatoes ‘lose flavour’ when refrigerated

A new study has found that tomatoes, when stored away in the fridge, are prone to losing their flavour.

The research which was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences discovered that tomatoes kept in rooms with any temperature below 12 degrees Celsius (about 54 degrees Fahrenheit) inhibit enzymes that help develop taste.

Refrigerated tomatoes come out fresh but bland as a result of cold spot storage.

A research was carried out at the University of Florida with the premise of why commercial tomatoes are often insipid while sun-ripened tomatoes retain their flavour.

Tomatoes were kept at different room temperatures for about 3-7 days allowing the fruits get “recovery” period at room temperature which lasted about 3 days.

The tomatoes were tested by 76 volunteer consumers whose rating revealed that the refrigerated fruit was significantly lower than ones that had been stored at room temperature.

Another stage of the research studied the content of the tomatoes and the research team found that most tomatoes go through a process that’s not ideal for creating flavour.

Using RNA sequencing to check what is going on inside cold tomatoes at a molecular level, it was revealed that the tomatoes were never going to “equal the one that matured in your backyard over the 80 or 90 days that you grew it, but it beats stone soup”.