Why has the tomato lost its taste?

Buying tomatoes without the well-known sweet and sour taste at a supermarket or a green market must have happened to everyone. Scientists claim that tomatoes haven't lost their taste accidentally and that this has happened in the past few decades of its mass growing for commercial purposes.

An international team of experts studied nearly 400 tomato varieties, from the modern ones to the oldest sorts, in order to determine what is happening with the world's most popular fruit.

They have determined that several decades of growing increasingly larger and more resistant tomatoes have lead to the loss of 13 chemicals making for its recognizable taste. Specific genetic changes in the plant have caused it to lose its taste.

Experts claim that seed producers might easily make supermarket tomatoes tasty again, and all they need to do is to cross-breed the sorts.

The process is similar to natural pollination, except carried out in laboratories. Scientists would mix modern and old sorts and single out the plants closest to what they're trying to achieve.

After several generations, the result would be a tastier tomato, produced without the controversial genetic modification.

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