Not only did Israeli scientists create the modern cherry tomatoes that are so popular worldwide, but now researchers at food tech startup Supree have produced a strain of the fruit that even dries itself on the vine as it grows in the sun. “In tomatoes, there is a trait of tiny cracks called microcracking,” Supree VP Strategy and Growth Yana Voldman tells NoCamels.
“It’s a known trait and we didn’t invent it, but we knew that in classical breeding, it is taken out of the varieties,” she explains. “For fresh produce, you want to keep all the moisture and juice and you want to keep the fraud plump and juicy inside firm. So you take this trait out during the breeding process [and] we did exactly the opposite.”
The Supree tomato strain is uniquely bred so that the tiny cracks expand and allow the moisture within the fruit to evaporate naturally during the growing process. This maintains the taste and color that makes the cherry tomato so appealing and also preserves the nutritional benefits, such as antioxidants and vitamins, that turn it into a superfood.
By the time the tomatoes have ripened, they have lost around 80 percent of their weight through evaporation. They are harvested before the entire water content of the fruit has evaporated, and while the tomatoes may go through a further limited drying process, this does not include additives or other non-natural preservatives. “They don’t need additional processing; there’s no use of additives, and that also reduces the waste,” says Voldman.
Read more at nocamels.com