Thread replies: 14
Thread images: 3
Thread images: 3
Anonymous
Study: STOP REFRIGERATING YOUR TOMATOES 2016-10-26 19:28:07 Post No. 8221896
[Report] Image search: [Google]
Study: STOP REFRIGERATING YOUR TOMATOES 2016-10-26 19:28:07 Post No. 8221896
[Report] Image search: [Google]
File: 20140922-tomato-testing-part-3-vicky-wasik-2.jpg (184KB, 1500x1125px) Image search:
[Google]
184KB, 1500x1125px
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2016/10/17/refrigeration-really-does-ruin-tomatoes-according-to-science/
tl;dr Researchers have found that refrigeration ruins a tomato's flavor at the genetic level. Permanently.
>Researchers at The University of Florida have found in a study published Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study opens with what one might call “a truth universally acknowledged”: Commercial tomatoes are often flavorless. The researchers, led by horticulturalist Bo Zhang of the University of Florida, argue that the problem stems not from the tomatoes themselves, but from the post-harvest practice of chilling fruit. Keeping tomatoes at low temperatures slows down the ripening process and prevents them from rotting, but it also interferes with chemical compounds that give tomatoes their taste.
>Flavor in a fruit is determined by three things: sugars, acids and “volatiles,” the chemical compounds that are largely responsible for its aroma. Sugars and acids aren’t affected much by refrigeration, but most volatiles are synthesized during ripening, which is part of the reason ripe fruit has such a strong smell.
>To figure out how long a tomato needs to be chilled for volatile synthesis to be disrupted, Zhang and Co. collected a bunch of them, both heirloom and ordinary store varieties, and stuck them in a 41°F fridge for 1, 3, or 7 days.
>Each tomato then got either a 1- or 3-day “recovery” period at room temperature.
>The shorter periods of refrigeration didn’t have much impact on volatile content, but seven days significantly depleted those compounds, and neither of the recovery periods seemed to bring them back.
>The tomatoes were then tested by the discerning palates of 76 volunteer consumers; the tasters rated the chilled tomatoes significantly lower than ones that had been stored at room temperature.
>>
>>8221896
>Next, the researchers probed what was going on inside the cold tomatoes at a molecular level. Using RNA sequencing, they were able to figure out which genes were expressed differently when chilled. It turned out that affected genes numbered in the hundreds (the tomato genome has 25,000 genes – about 5,000 more than humans). Refrigeration set off a cascade of changes, starting with a set of cold signaling genes and moving through the ones responsible for metabolism, ripening and volatile synthesis. It also affected DNA methylation – the mechanism that cells use to control which genes get turned on and off.
>This is especially problematic because, unlike sugars and acids, volatiles don’t stay inside a fruit once they’re synthesized – they’re lost through the stem scar (the spot where the fruits were once attached to a stem). A tomato may be bursting with flavor when picked, but seven straight days of cold temperatures and no volatile production render it “insipid.”
>>
>>8221896
Wow, my grandmother should have won th Nobel prize since she knew that in the 1920's.
>>
>>8221896
>STOP REFRIGERATING YOUR TOMATOES
>implying I ever did
>>
>>8221896
I know this already but still interesting. I always like tomatoes best in season and ripe from the plant. Now it's proven scientifically that I'm right al along.
>>
>>8221903
This is one of those things that we always knew the "why" of, but not the mechanics of "how" until now.
http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-tomatoes-refrigerator-taste-20161017-snap-story.html
>“Basically, the tomato gets cold and tells itself to stop making these aroma compounds,” said Denise Tieman, a research associate professor at the Plant Innovation Center at the University of Florida in Gainesville.
>“The change is irreversible,” she added.
>In previous work, the authors had shown that a refrigerated tomato has the same amount of sugars and acids as a freshly picked tomato, but significantly less aroma compounds.
http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/10/17/498232752/forget-tomayto-tomahto-the-real-debate-is-should-it-be-refrigerated
>"It's not so clear cut," says Daniel Gritzer, culinary director at SeriousEats.com, a food website. Two years ago, he did a series of blind taste tests with many different tomatoes, in New York and in California.
>"Sometimes I found that the refrigerator is, in fact, your best bet," says Gritzer. That's especially true for a tomato that's already ripe and at peak flavor, he says. If you let that tomato sit on your counter, it'll end up tasting worse.
>Gritzer wrote a long blog post, detailing his results, and got a flood of reaction. "Some people wrote to say, 'Hey, this is what I've always found, I'm so glad you wrote this,'" Gritzer says. "And then, a lot of people pushed back saying, 'You're insane, you don't know what you're talking about.'"
>It's a "thorny one," Gritzer says. People just feel very strongly about their tomatoes.
Always nice to see SeriousEats get their teeth kicked in when they deserve it. Here's their original article:
http://www.seriouseats.com/2014/09/why-you-should-refrigerate-tomatoes.html
Maybe 1 day @ peak ripeness is okay, but this new study didn't even address that mealy texture tomatoes get in the fridge which can be equally as unpleasant.
>>
No shit? When you grocery shop for produce look at where you get each item. Are the tomatoes refrigerated in the store?
>>
>>
File: beyond-the-business-plan-managing-unexpected-risks-in-biotechnology-business-development-12-728.jpg (119KB, 728x546px) Image search:
[Google]
119KB, 728x546px
>>8221946
You'd probably have to perform a before & after volatile compound analysis on them to check.
One of the lead researchers on this study for the University of Florida has an on-going cross-breeding program to identify the volatile chemical compounds in different varieties of ripened tomatoes that most contribute to flavor in an effort to create a "Super Tomato".
http://hos.ufl.edu/kleeweb/flavorresearch.html
You can even get a packet of seeds of their current experimental heirlooms by making a donation to their horticulture department:
http://hos.ufl.edu/kleeweb/newcultivars.html
There was actually a variety of GMO tomato developed and marketed in the early 90s specifically for taste, not yield or cost like current branches, that shut down over consumer paranoia which you can see the story here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kv5TlkAN3z8
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flavr_Savr
>>
>>8221929
I tell this to my mother and she looks at me like I'm crazy. I've just started eating tomatoes and apples this past year since I moved out.
>>
So now what do I do /ck/?
What do I do when I want a BLT in fucking January?
Are you really going to say the crap at the store will be better than my frozen cherry tomatoes?
>>
>>8222024
>What do I do when I want a BLT in fucking January?
Suck it up and eat something else.
>>
>>8222024
Make tomato jam and can it, then spread that on your bread in winter. Better than off season tomatoes by an order of infinity.
>>
File: ITS ALMOST NOVEMBER.png (9KB, 307x321px) Image search:
[Google]
9KB, 307x321px
>>8221896
That's useful for most people to know.
But I live in Arizona.
Thread posts: 14
Thread images: 3
Thread images: 3