Features Production Vegetables
Off-flavour in tomatoes

October 5, 2015, Guelph, Ont – Do you love the flavour of cis-3-hexenal? It’s so delicious combined with acid, sugar, and the right balance of other volatile compounds, isn’t it? Many prefer it with a bit of 2-isobutylthiazole.

Tomato flavour is a complicated equation. There isn’t one “tomato flavour” chemical that gives the tomato its distinctive taste and aroma. For that perfect tomato, the right balance of sugars, organic acids, and somewhere between 30 and 400 volatile compounds need to be in place. Otherwise, you might complain the tomato is tasteless, bland, sour, tastes metallic or has a “chemical” flavour. READ MORE