The flavour of a tomato is produced by a combination of sugars, acids and volatile compounds. Previous studies have shown that some of these compounds are lost when tomatoes are stored at low temperatures. A team of international researchers has therefore tried to understand what is happening at the molecular level.
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By storing tomatoes at 5° C for a period of 8 days, they were able to discover that the genes that control the production of 12 different volatiles were degraded. And it is irreversible: the tomatoes stored at room temperature afterwards don't recover their initial taste. This result was confirmed by a group of 76 testers.
However, this study does reveal some good news: tomatoes start to lose their taste after 3 days of storage in the refrigerator and sweet products made from tomatoes, like ketchup, don't appear to suffer the same effect!
Check out the video above for more!