"researchers have discovered one reason why: a genetic mutation, common in store-bought tomatoes"
This reason stated in the article is not the primary reason. Store tomatoes are picked hard and green so they will not be bruised during transport. They are then sprayed with nitrogen before being put out so that the skin turns orangish and looks sort of ripe. But it's not ripe, and won't ripen properly since it's a green tomato that was picked long before it was ripe.
You can grow the exact same varieties that they sell at the store and allow them to ripen and they will taste considerably better than store bought. This shows that the popular hybrid varieties are not the primary cause of the taste and texture problems.
Yes, some varieties of heritage tomatoes will taste even better, due to genetics. But the overwhelming primary issue here is the picking when completely non-ripe.
>They are then sprayed with nitrogen before being put out so that the skin turns orangish and looks sort of ripe.
Stores spray the tomatoes with Ethelyene gas. Not Nitrogen. The difference matters here. Ethelyene gas is naturally produced by tomatoes and other fruits that ripen after picking. This gas catalyzes the ripening process. In nature, ripening happens relatively slowly because the gas is excreted into the open air. In a supermarket, this gas is given in much higher doses than would happen in nature, accelerating the ripening process. This turns the tomatoes red, but because it happens more quickly the sugars in the tomatoes don't have as much time to fully develop which is the main reason home-grown and ripened tomatoes can taste better.
However, as I explained this is still just an accelerated version of a natural process. You can do a smaller scale version by sticking your tomatoes in a paper bag with an apple (apples produce a lot of Ethelyene gas) for a couple days. The article is describing tomatoes that theoretically taste even better than home grown varieties, which still have similar genetic makeup to supermarket variety tomatoes.
This reason stated in the article is not the primary reason. Store tomatoes are picked hard and green so they will not be bruised during transport. They are then sprayed with nitrogen before being put out so that the skin turns orangish and looks sort of ripe. But it's not ripe, and won't ripen properly since it's a green tomato that was picked long before it was ripe.
You can grow the exact same varieties that they sell at the store and allow them to ripen and they will taste considerably better than store bought. This shows that the popular hybrid varieties are not the primary cause of the taste and texture problems.
Yes, some varieties of heritage tomatoes will taste even better, due to genetics. But the overwhelming primary issue here is the picking when completely non-ripe.
source: decades of growing tomatoes