tomato

In the 17th century there was a food that was considered deadly for the rich, but did not kill the poorest: the tomato.

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Today it is almost impossible to imagine Mediterranean cuisine without tomatoes, a food highly valued by its nutritional benefits and their antioxidant propertiesanti-cancer and how preventative for aging cellular. However, its integration into the European diet was a slow process full of obstacles, marked by a phenomenon that stigmatized it for centuries, calling it a poisonous food that could lead to cause death, especially if you were rich. Curiously, the poor were immune to its poison. The tomato was deadly for the rich The history of the tomato hides a phenomenon that defied the logic of the time, as it seemed to act as a selective executioner capable of distinguishing the social status of those who ate it. While the peasants and the popular classes They consumed it without suffering harm In some cases, rich aristocrats and wealthy merchants became seriously ill and even died after ingesting it, which consolidated the belief that it was a poisonous and cursed fruit. However, the key to this medical mystery lies not in the biological composition of the tomato, but in the chemistry of the utensils used by rich Europeans when serving and preparing this food. The upper classes of the 18th century had the custom of serving their banquets in pewter tablewarea metallic alloy highly appreciated for its shine and similarity to silver, composed mainly of tin and copper, but with a high lead content. Unlike the rich, the humble classes could not afford these luxuries and ate on simple plates made of wood, clay or coarse ceramics, materials that were chemically inert to food. The problem was that, when the natural acidity of the tomato came into contact with the surface of the pewter plates, their interaction caused a chemical reaction that leached lead from the alloyreleasing this heavy metal directly into the food. As a result, the aristocrats suffered lead poisoning (lead poisoning), whose symptoms were erroneously attributed to the toxicity of the tomatoes and not to the dish in which it was served, granting him tomato the nickname “poison apple” for more than 200 years. Bad botanical companies The rejection of the tomato in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries was not only due to the wealthy victims that this evil fruit claimed, but was supported by the botanical science of the time, which classified it under a family of some plants with a bad reputation: nightshades. Naturalists identify the tomato as a member of the Solanaceae, the same group to which plants belong. famous for their toxicity such as nightshade, henbane or mandrake. This botanical association was enough for doctors and scholars to assume that the new fruit native to the Americas shared the deadly properties of its distant relatives. This botanical classification reinforced the irrational fear of the plant, linking it not only with the poison that was clearly killing the richest, but with spiritual and moral dangers typical of the time. The mandrake, in particular, was strongly associated with witchcraft and rituals dark due to its narcotic effects and the anthropomorphic form of its roots. By placing the tomato in this same biological bag, all the negative connotations and superstitions that surrounded the plants used in the dark arts were transferred to it. As and as they pointed out in National Geographicthe herbalist John Gerard was one of those responsible for fixing this negative image in the collective mind, leaving in writing in his work Herball of 1597 a devastating sentence. Gerard described the plant as producing “corrupt and poisonous fruits”, a statement that, coming from an authority on the subject, cemented the terror of the tomato in Britain and its colonies for centuries. Although in Spain and Italy the tomato began to be accepted earlier due to the influence of customs brought from Americain northern Europe the shadow of suspicion lasted much longer. It was necessary for modern chemistry to explain the pewter reaction and for botany to refine its classifications so that the tomato could finally clear its name and occupy the place it today has on our tables, no matter if you are rich or poor. In Xataka | They are millionaires, but they eat like children. Warren Buffett and Mark Zuckerberg share a passion for junk food Image | Nano Banana, Unsplash (Wanasanan Phonnaun)

Italy has been importing its famous “Italian” tomato paste from China for years. And now China has a problem

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The powerful tomato sector Chinese faces turbulence. After achieving a prominent position in the global market and becoming the largest tomato orchard in the world, the Asian giant has encountered a drop in sales in a strategic market: the European market. More specifically in Italy, where the demand for vegetables from Xinjiang has deflated at the stroke of controversies. The data is quite eloquent. Only during the third quarter of 2025 did sales of Chinese tomato paste in Italy decrease about 80%. Tomato ‘made in China’? It comes with taking a look at the maps from World Population Review to understand the enormous weight that China has achieved in the world tomato market. According to its latest data, in 2023 the nation produced about 70.1 million tons. This places it considerably above India, which occupies second place with 20.4 million tons, Turkey (13.3 million), the US (12.4 million) or Egypt (6.2 million), which complete the ‘TOP 5’. Also from Spain, which occupies ninth place, with nearly four million. Extremaduran farmers warned about the growing threat from China a few months ago, who recognize that the competition exerted by the Asian tomato is already their “biggest problem”. It’s not just that China harvests tons and tons of vegetables, it’s that it does so at such low costs that they make its tomato paste (a fundamental product for the food industry) unbeatable. Click on the image to go to the tweet. Is he that attractive? Yes. And it is not something that is observed only in Extremadura. Just a year ago Francesco Mutti, CEO of the sauce manufacturer that bears his last name, recognized that much of the cheap tomato paste coming from China is produced in the Xinjiang region with “very, very low labor costs.” something similar they slid in 2016 from Las Marismas (Andalusia): “They ask us for European quality at the price of Chinese tomatoes, something impossible taking into account the costs.” In practice this means that China exports every year tons and tons of tomato to the European market, which in turn generates a lucrative business. OEC calculate That last year the Asian giant exported processed tomatoes worth 1.21 billion dollars. If we look at its main destinations, Italy occupied a priority place, with a value of 83.8 million dollars. And what has happened? That although China is a gigantic exporter and has managed to differentiate itself in prices, its product has been compromised by an unexpected factor?: controversy. I told it a few days ago Financial Times. News about the use of forced labor in Xinjiang (a region that has attracted attention of the UN for alleged human rights violations against the Uyghur minority) and the lack of clarity The labeling with which some Italian companies identify the origin of their products has conditioned Chinese pasta exports, in which large state companies play a crucial role. Result? Against this backdrop, to which is added the campaign of the Italian agricultural association Coldiretti, China has encountered a problem: a ‘pinch’ in exports that has left it with a huge stock of processed tomatoes. Financial Times assuresciting data from the platform Tomato News, that the Asian giant has a reserve of between 600,000 and 700,000 tons of tomato paste. To understand its scope, it is equivalent to six months of exports. Has demand dropped that much? Yes. The data shows that the Western market seems to want to move away from the doubts that shadow the Chinese product. In general, Chinese tomato paste exports decreased by 9% year-on-year during the third quarter of 2025, but if we focus specifically on sales to Western EU countries, that percentage rises to 67%. In the specific case of Italy, purchases plummeted by 76%. “It is clear that Europe has become a difficult place to export,” recognize to Financial Times Martin Stilwell, head of Tomate News, the source of the data. Do we handle more data? Yes. There are two other reveals. The first has to do with the value of processed tomato exports to Italy. If between January and September 2024, Chinese customs recorded about 75 million dollars, this year, during the same period, it did not even reach 13. The other data has to do with the volume of fresh tomato processed to turn it into pasta: 4.8 million tons in 2021, 11 million in 2024 and 3.7 this year (estimate). For Stilwell, the reading is clear: faced with the difficulties of selling, China chooses to cut expenses instead of increasing its stock. What does China say? That accusations about the use of forced labor in Xinjuang are “a lie” created and propagated by “anti-Chinese forces” to harm the country. The truth is that years ago the US decided to turn its back on imports of tomato paste from that region of the Asian giant and in the case of Italy they weigh somewhat more than the suspicions of the UN. In 2021 the Caribineri ‘hunted’ a company that labeled its canned tomato as “100% Italian” when in reality it included product from China. “If we assume that Italy has 80 companies related to tomato processing, three, four or five have committed dishonest practices,” Mutti assureswho regrets the damage this does to the reputation of the Italian sector. Images | Tom Hermans (Unsplash) and Arthur Wang (Unsplash) In Xataka | Four nations are fighting over a fruit that smells like rotten eggs. China has turned it into its gastronomic phenomenon

Science has found the secret of the giant tomato, but it may be at the cost of destroying its good flavor

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Imagine being able to take a small, bitter, wild eggplant and with a single genetic tweak, turn it into a very different variety, much larger and ready for the market. This, it seems something out of a science fiction movieit may be a reality that is getting closer, as one pointed out published study in the magazine Nature who deciphered the genetic “instruction manual” of the entire eggplant family and also the tomato. The problem. We are currently living in a time in which the climate is changing radically. with increases in temperatures or reduction in rainfall that reach our fields. This forces us to have a ‘plan B’ in the bedroom that allows us to continue having crops efficiently and to be able to feed an entire population despite there being a climate decline. And genetics in this case is preparing for it with different changes. The agriculture of the genetically modified foods is starting to gain strength. The fact of modifying the seed of a fruit so that it comes out with significant improvements, such as being juicier, larger or more efficient, is the future of agri-food engineering. And all to be able to respond to an increasingly growing demand for food, but with a space suitable for it that is smaller. A commitment to flavor. But these genetic alterations raise many questions. The goal right now is to have fat tomatoes or eggplants that are also very elongated but without thinking about anything else. If we eat a tomato on many occasions what we want is for it to be juicy and good. But genetic modification may overlooks these types of essential components to be more ‘productive’ and nutritious. But the objective in this case of the investigation that is currently being carried out is on size. And if one tomato ‘from the future’ can be equivalent to three ‘current’ ones, the truth is that we will have taken a very important step. And this is already being seen. The investigation. An international team of scientists has created the first “pangenome“of the genus Solanum. This is not only the tomato and eggplant family, but also the potato and dozens of other crops consumed locally around the world, and which opens the door to a great evolution in the field of food and the agri-food industry. The objective. For the researchers, the objective was quite clear from the first moment: to know why a gene that produces a desirable trait, such as having a larger fruit in a tomato, does not work when tried to apply it to an eggplant. The answer in this case is quite clear: genetic redundancy. The obstacle. In this case, scientists saw that the main obstacle to this genetic modification not being applied was in gene duplications, known as paralogues. In order to understand this concept we can imagine the light in a room that would be our phenotype and that in order to turn it off we need to press two switches that control it. These switches are what we know as paralogs, and in order to turn off the light it would be necessary to deactivate both. This is what happens in many species, which have created ‘backup copies’ of their switches so that turning off just one would do absolutely nothing and would not materialize in their phenotype, such as their size. That is why this team analyzed 22 species of Solanum and discovered that, although the overall structure of chromosomes is similar, thousands of key genes have undergone different variations throughout their evolution. The brake gene. Scientists have long known that a gene called CLAVATA3 (CLV3) is the master regulator of fruit size in tomatoes. Its function is, basically, to act as a brake. It tells stem cells at the plant’s growing points (the meristems) when to stop dividing. Thus, when this gene is mutated or ‘off’ the brake is released and the plate produces more cells, resulting in larger flowers with more seed compartments and also a much larger fruit. And here is the key to how a tomato will end up being domesticated. The problem is that the tomato has an additional “handbrake”, which is a paralogous gene called CLE9. In this way, even if we alter CLV3, it will not have its full effect, since it will have this extra switch that must also be altered. CRISPR. It is a genetic ‘editing weapon’ that will allow us to achieve the effect we want and cut the brake on CLV3 so that the fruits can evolve. The scientists ran the tests on the African eggplant, a species that lost its CLE9 handbrake a long time ago, but has a functional copy of CLV3. When scientists used CRISPR to deactivate that only functional copy, the result was massive and uncontrolled growth, demonstrating that that gene was the only brake he had left. In another experiment, we used S.prinophyllum that did not have CLE9, but did have two units of CLV3 (CLV3a and CLV3b). In this case, when the researchers edited a single copy, the brake was weakened and the plant produced fruits with more lobes and therefore slightly larger fruits. But when they removed the two brakes, uncontrolled growth was seen again. The surprise find. While research was being carried out along these lines, experts saw something they did not expect: a completely different gene on chromosome 2 called SaetSCPL25-like acted as the main size “switch” in the African eggplant. Something that responded to a small natural mutation of this gene that was associated with the additional locules per fruit. To check this, they did the experiment in reverse. They took this new gene and they cracked it with CRISPR on a standard tomato. The result in this case is that fruits were produced with more locules, that is, they were much larger. In this way, the researchers had found a second genetic path to increase the size of the fruit in addition to breaking its brakes. … Read more

Summer has been so hard that it has taken to the most summer ingredient in the salad: tomato

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The arrival of the rains this year seemed to bring a thread of hope to a battered agricultural sector for drought months. The news that comes to us could not be more different: grapes, citrus, bananas… For one reason or on the other, the crops are not fulfilling expectations, and the most recent example has been put by the tomato. 76 million. The tomato sector in Extremadura He has taken stock This year’s harvest and has not been precisely optimistic: a “ruin” is like the union of small farmers and ranchers from Extremadura (UPA-UCE) defined it in a Recent statement. The Extremadura Agrarian Organization figure at 76 million euros the annual losses of tomato producers after this year’s harvest. Double problem. The Sector Association points to A double problem: On the one hand, “ruinous prices (taxes by) the industrial sector”. Prices that, according to the association do not allow to cover the costs associated with production. The price problem is linked to the second of the problems of this campaign: that of production. According to association data, for this campaign the hiring for this campaign was based on an expected productivity of 93 tons per hectare on average. In Extremadura, real productivity has ended up being lower, about 82 tons per hectare. Lower productivity, lower production. This has been reflected in a bad harvest, with a production remarkably lower than that originally hired, 20% lower, according to UPA-UCE data. The main reason in this fall in production is for the sector, in meteorology. A climate not so propitious. Everything seemed to indicate that the meteorology would be favorable this year: months of elevated rainfall or, the less normal, they served not only to conclude the dry episode that affected our environment for several years; The hydrological bonanza also served for reservoirs to recover filling levels that had not been seen in years. However, the summer of 2025 was not consistent with what was seen in the previous months, but it brought us a Dry and very warm summera summer with two heat waves especially severe both in intensity and in duration. The result: weaker plants. And with more problems, they explain from UPA-UCE. Echoes from other fields. The story is repeated in several sectors. The arrival of the rains seemed to bring new hopes to the agricultural sector, however, the expected increase in harvest has also been translating into lower prices In origin, something that already supposed in itself a problem for many farmers. The problem has been even greater in sectors like grapeswhere expectations are not being met and now producers must face the low prices of a high offer, but with a lower production to the expected. In Xataka | During centuries Galicia was a thriving land of olive groves with unique varieties in the world. What changed it is still a mystery Image | Czapp ÁPád

The potato or tomato. We have just answered a more intriguing question than if the egg or chicken was before

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For those who are not experts in gastronomic history, it is difficult to get the idea of what European medieval cuisine would be like. Today these two vegetables are two of the angle stones of the kitchen, we are in Andalusia or Helsinki, but there was a time when Europeans did not even know their existence. But the story of these two foods goes much further back in time, to an anterior era even to the appearance of the human being. The origin of the potato. Now, a genetic study has achieved Show us the degree of kinship Among the plants that give us the potato (Solanum tuberosum) and the tomato (Solanum lycopersicum). The study has indicated that the appearance of the potato was due to the natural crossing between the tomato and another plant called Etuberosum. The analysis has placed this crossing in time: it would have happened about nine million years ago. With regard to the place of origin of this plant, the study has not given any surprise since this crossing would have occurred in South America, the first continent where the potato became a key crop. “Our findings show how a hybridization event between species can detonate the evolution of new features, allowing even more species to emerge,” pointed in a press release Sanwen Huang, member of the study responsible for the study. “We have finally resolved the mystery of where the potatoes come from.” Solanum. The name of both plant species already gives us a clue: the close kinship between these plants had not yet escaped the experts who had classified both species in the genus Solanumthe “type” gender of the Solanáceas family (Solanaceae), family that includes other vegetables such as eggplants and peppers, while plants such as Petunia and The Datura. However, there was something that did not fit into this extensive family and that had been intrigued for the experts for some time. It was in the resemblance between the potato plant and a third species of soanácea of the same genre as the previous ones, Solanum ethuberosum. These plants are apparently resemble the potato plant, however They do not produce tubers In their roots, a fact that confused those who studied this family. Surprise in the family. The new genetic analysis explains that the difference between these plants lies in the fact that, despite the fact that the potato plant is more morphologically similar to Etuberosumit is with the tomato plant that the popular tuber is closely related. 506 Genomas. In his study, the team analyzed 450 genomes extracted from cultivated potatoes and 56 genomes of wild potato species. According to the team, this last part was an important challenge due to the difficulty of obtaining samples of the wild variants of these plants. The details of the study were published In an article In the magazine Cell. More than a family tree. The team also analyzed some key genes for the formation of tubers in these plants, the result of the combination of genetic material from both precursor species. They found, for example, the work of the SP6A gene, which acts as a “switch” that indicates when to start developing these structures and that comes from tomato plants. They also investigated in the IT1 gene, responsible for the growth of these tubers, from the plant side Etuberosum. In Xataka | In Spain of 2024 the tomatoes do not know anything, but in Albacete they live in 2124: welcome to the “Tomafrán” Image | Shalev Cohen / Rodrigo Dos Reis

Extremadura promised them very happy with its powerful Spanish tomato industry. Until China arrived

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More than market fluctuationsthe production costs or the rain. If there is something capable of removing the dream from Spanish farmers dedicated to tomato cultivation, China is. The Asian giant is the great tomato garden of the world and it is increasingly difficult to compete with its prices. Hence, in Extremadura, the region that More hectares dedicated to industrial plantations, recognize That today the competition of the Asian vegetable is its “biggest problem.” The big question is … What to expect from now on? Tomato “Made in Extremadura”. If we talk about Spanish tomatoespecially from industry oriented, Extremadura is the king. In the 2023 campaign, the 75% of the surface of cultivation of the country, at a considerable distance from Andalusia (11.3%) and Navarra (7.9%). And the percentage is even greater if we talk about production volume. In 2021 the regional government estimated that the surface dedicated to the crop was around 23,000 hectares. Throughout Spain it was around 31,000. A sector with swings. The tomato industry is powerful, but like many other crops is subject to the fields of the field and the market. In January, for example, Extremaduran farmers They alerted that the price of the fruit was below the cost of production: the vegetable ton was quoted at 107 euros in the private industry and 115 in cooperatives, far from the 140 reached in 2024 or the average cost of production of recent years, which It was 128. “The situation of tomato is unbearable. If urgent measures are not taken, many farmers will be forced to abandon the crop, which will seriously affect the sustainability of the sector and employment in the Extremaduran field,” warned At the beginning of the year Juan Metidieri, president of Aigg Extremadura Asaja. This year the culture surface will be reduced by several hectares, Precise The economistamong other reasons to avoid stock accumulation. China slopes. In the sector there is, however, something that rests so much or more than production costs or fluctuations in the price of the vegetable. Farmers have been concerned for a long time. Heavyweight of the world tomato market, China, which leads the “Top 4” next to the United States, India and Türkiye. According to data from World Population Reviewits production exceeded in 2022 the 68 million tons and a large part of that fruit ends in the world market -oriented market circuit. The problem is not so much the huge production of China and its prices and the pressure they exert in the sector. A few months ago, during An interview with Financial TimesFrancesco Mutti, the executive director of the sauce manufacturer who takes his last name, warned that much of the cheap tomato paste that arrives from China occurs in the Xinjiang region, where companies benefit from “very, very low labor costs.” That panorama and the different requirements facing European and Asian crops They worry Also in Extremadura. “It’s the biggest problem”. Its effect on the market worries so much that Domingo Fernández, president of APIS Group and manager of Agrifood Cooperatives of Extremadura, recognized recently to The economist that right now the Chinese tomato represents “the biggest problem.” The reason? In his opinion, the differences in controls in Spain and China derives in a “unfair competition.” Similar opinion shared Recently in Today José A. Gutiérrez, Farmer: “What we can not compete in the supermarket with products that enter Spain without those limitations. Compites against a Chinese tomato that has no traceability. It requires controls that are not appreciated in the market.” Are you worrying alone in Extremadura? At all. The sector has been on guard for Asian competition for years, something that is seen with concern both in Extremadura and in other regions or countries of Europe. In 2016 the Las Marismas Cooperativa, in Andalusia, He warned Of the challenges that Spanish farmers face: “They ask us for European quality at the price of Chinese tomato, something impossible taking into account the costs for the industry.” If someone has expressed themselves in a resounding and achieved echo manner in the sector, it is, however, the Italian Francesco Mutti, at the head of a business conglomerate dedicated to food that only in 2023 he billed 665 million of euros. Restrictions, tariffs? “We should stop the importation of Chinese tomato paste or add a 60% tax so that its cost is not so different from Italian products,” Mutti advocates before insisting that “more than 90%” of China’s tomatoes occur in Xinjiang, a region subject to scrutiny of the United Nations allegations of Human Rights against the Uigur minority, including episodes of forced labor. “We must protect them”. According to FTin 2024 China monopolized 23% of the global tomato production, several points above 18% of the previous year. Its production is also much cheaper: Chinese tomato paste costs about half that created in Italy. “We must teach our farmers to grow better, but also protect them from unfair competition. Otherwise, the result will not be a better environment, but to transfer our production abroad,” Mutti advocateswho has already sent his concerns to Brussels. The panorama, Remember Antonio Lucas MarínProfessor of Sociology and Economist, it does not seem simple: China The flow of Chinese tomato paste has been growing after the increase in energy and fertilizers in Europe. In the case of Extremadura, Asian competition will not be felt alone in Spain. The export community Thousands of tons of prepared or preserved tomato. “The Extremadura Tomato Transformation Industries have become the leading agri -food export sector Extremadura, ahead of the fruit. More than 80% of the total is allocated to the export market, with prominent markets such as France, the United Kingdom or Germany among many others,” he says A report on the production and economic footprint of the sector published in 2022. Images | Sue Thompson (Flickr), /Ricardo (UNSPLASH) and Lid (Flickr) In Xataka | The science of finding tomatoes that really know Tomate, that increasingly elusive holy grail

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