"MODERN" TOMATO-DOES CONSUMER ACCEPT IT?

Tomato is one of the most consumed vegetables in the world and most consumers associate its quality with color and taste. Of course texture also counts to some extent when tomato is eaten as a part of a salad. But the processing industry wants, above all, a firm texture that will enable shipping over long distances with minimum damage. With the advent of modern biotechnology, it is possible to impart any desirable characteristics to a plant as desired by the consumer or the processor. Modern day retailing system involves hauling food materials over long distance through road, rail, ship and air and naturally such long distance haulage can inflict heavy damage during transportation. During development of firm textured tomato varieties some genetic changes are brought about by the plant breeders to get a uniform color and texture and it appears such genetic tinkering  while imparting the color and texture sought after, also caused flavor changes making modern tomato practically a flavorless vegetable. The good old heirloom tomato with its characteristic juiciness and flavor has been relegated to oblivion and here is the sad story of such a transformation. 

It looks like 70 years of breeding for better color in unripe fruit has inadvertently helped create the wet-paper towel flavor of the modern tomato.  Growers care about the green of unripe tomatoes, explains biochemist Ann L. Thomas Powell of the University of California, Davis. Ripening globes that are each uniformly green let growers easily judge when a field will be ready for harvest. Over decades breeders have selected for this uniform green coloring instead of for tomatoes that turn a deeper shade around the stem end, Powell says. The problem is, getting rid of that dark green zone, called green shoulders, turns out to have sabotaged a gene called SlGLK2 that boosts sugar and other sources of flavor in the ripe tomato, Powell and her colleagues report in the June 29 Science. "It is a good illustration of unintended consequences," says molecular biologist Harry Klee of the University of Florida in Gainesville, who studies tomato flavor. For years, Powell says, breeders assumed that a ripe red tomato got all of its sugars from the little photosynthetic engines known as chloroplasts in the plant leaves. It turns out, however, that a green-shouldered tomato gets about 20 percent of its sugars from its own chloroplasts. Without a functional SlGLK2 gene, the ripening tomato forms fewer and punier chloroplasts that don't deliver, Powell and her colleagues have found.

The million dollar question is whether such gross changes in the original nature of a vegetable like Tomato is accepted readily by the consumer and is there still a yearning for the good old tomato? Probably the modern generation of consumers who were not acquainted with the original Tomato may not be too much bothered by the flavorless characteristics of the product available to day having had no chance to see and experience eating the real Tomato and therefore industry can get away with such brazen attempts to ignore flavor in preference to texture and color. Probably a time may come when there might be a renascence of old Tomato and consumers willing to pay a premium price as it has happened with organic foods.  

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

"MIRACLE FRUIT"- WHAT IS IT?

Sweetness is a taste that has captured the imagination of consumers world over and white sugar or High Fructose Corn Syrup has literally made the consumers compulsive eaters of highly sweetened foods. The consequences are there for every one to see as the affluent society is faced with the ill effects of uncontrolled consumption of foods containing high sugar levels, supposed to give immense sensory satisfaction, in the form of rampant obesity and many health disorders like diabetes. Arrival of artificial sweeteners did provide some relief, obviating the need to use sugar by those unable to take natural sugar but their use is mired in controversy on safety issues. Latest to arrive on the scene is the so called Miracle Fruit which is reported to have the property to make sour and bitter foods appear sweet in the oral cavity, thus satisfying the craving for foods which are sweet. It is interesting to read about the "miracle" brought about by this fruit on the tongue as can be seen from the following report.

"Miracle Fruit (Synsepalum dulcificum), sometimes known as the Miracle Berry, is a plant native to West Africa. The berry has a mildly sweet flavor; however, the fruit is treasured not for its own taste, but for the fruit's unique effect on the taste buds. Miracle Fruit contains a glycoprotein called miraculin, which binds to the tongue's taste buds when the fruit is consumed. Miraculin acts as a sweetness inducer when it comes in contact with acids, causing bitter and sour foods to taste sweet, temporarily. This effect usually lasts between 30 minutes and 2 hours. The plant was first documented in 1725, when explorers in West Africa observed the local tribes picking the berries and chewing them before meals. Recently, the fruit has become popular in food tasting events, sometimes referred to as "Miracle Fruit Parties." Partygoers consume sour and bitter foods -- such as lemons, radishes, and beer -- to experience the dramatic change in taste. Miracle Fruit is available in three forms: The actual berries (which are usually frozen due to their high perishability), freeze-dried fruit granules, and miracle fruit tablets".

In India the Amla fruit, Indian Gooseberry, gives some what same sensation after experiencing a little bitterness initially and this has been attributed to the presence of gallic acid in the fruit which modifies the taste bud perception regarding sweetness. Though precise mechanism is not yet understood, it is presumed that the brain is misled to send message that the bitter taste is sweet to the tongue! Similarly another phytochemical gymnemic acid acts differently to decrease the sweetness perception of a product containing high sugar levels. What implications these "wrong" signal inducers in the development of new food products is not yet certain, though experts believe more elbow room is now available to design low sugar products targeted at diet moderating and diabetes people in the coming years. Miracle fruit juice concentrates, granules and pills are already in the market for consumption by the sugar shunning consumers to evoke sweetness feeling even at low levels of sugar and in presence of sour ingredients.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com