The already rare taste of heirloom tomatoes is now the subject of studies from universities, up to the laboratories and institutes. Their goal is to bring back the original tomato taste sensation that is almost gone due to mass production.

Market varieties are already based on toughness over taste. 400 kinds of tomatoes were studied in order to extract the compounds needed to achieve the study as 30 compounds are believed to have the key.

According to reports from Science News, Harry Klee and his colleagues at the University of Florida in Gainesville has already discovered the loss of 13 molecules in tomatoes sold in markets. These molecules are significant components to how a tomato taste as it increases in amount, the rush it provides is unmistakable; the result of their research has already been published on January 26 in "Science".

Another concerned tomato chemist, Alisdair Fernie, of the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology in Potsdam, Germany has agreed on the study and added that it needs a holistic approach to achieving the original taste. More so that it can attract consumers if the product has a wide variety of choices and quality.

As per reports from Science Daily, modern day tomatoes lack the good alleles from where the original taste of the tomato had come from. Together with the geneticists of China's Agricultural Genomics Institute in Shenzhen, they came up a study consisting of 400 kinds of tomatoes to determine these compounds and breed four or five heirloom versions only.

There are also concerns with regard to picking and ripening of tomatoes as cooling can weaken the flavor of tomatoes. Thus, alongside this study is Klee's approach to making better plants and how to treat its storage strategically. Considering that the study involves meticulous determination of the original taste, the geneticists followed the strict four to five breeds as breeding takes a lot of time.

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