What’s the difference between fresh and non-fresh fruits and vegetables?
And I don’t mean “fresh food comes from the farmer’s market,” but rather: why does a freshly-picked tomato taste different from one that has been sitting on a shelf? What chemical or biological changes happen?
In: Biology
For a fruit or vegetable to be ripe when it’s sold, it needs to have been harvested when it was still unripe, because otherwise it would arrive on the shelf overripe. This means that it never finishes developing in the sun and attached to the plant, and the flavour suffers from it.
A fresh fruit/vegetable instead has been picked from the plant already ripe and ready to eat. It has completed the ripening process still attached to the plant, under the sun, and tastes better.
Bacteria – and bacteria love oxygen. Bacteria also don’t do so as well in colder environments. Bacteria excrete chemicals and products we find to be distasteful/odorous
Keep the food cold and in a vacuum, and it will last longer because the bacteria can’t eat/grow as fast.
Some of what you taste/smell is the result of bacteria feeding on the organic and decaying organic material.
Cellular decay – cells start decaying as soon as life is no longer being sustained, which allows bacteria to flourish
Most grocery stores use what are referred to as bullet proof tomatoes. These tomatoes can take more handling and store longer than your backyard varieties. The trade off for being tougher is that they don’t have the same flavor. Store bought tomatoes are also going to be refrigerated along the process of going from the farm to your local store. If the tomatoes weren’t quite ripe then this stunts the ripening process. Also you may see some breakdown of the cell walls when chilled, changing the texture. Now I’m remembering another thing I miss from back home, creole tomatoes.
Once you cut the tomatoes then you should put them in the fridge if you need to store them for an extended time. Otherwise leave them out at room temp (assuming you don’t live in a igloo).
TLDR: Farmers market or back yard grown tomatoes are a different variety of the ones in most stores.
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