University researchers in Florida make progress with tastier tomato

Tomatoes may not hold the iconic status of the Florida orange, but researchers are hard at work infusing a burst of flavor into the versatile fruit.

From soups, sauces and salsa, to sandwiches and subs, tomatoes are widely used in a variety of cuisines.

Denise Tieman, a research assistant at the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, has made progress of improving the flavor of the Tasti-Lee tomato, a fruit developed at UF.

“What we are trying to do now is make it easier to breed for flavor,” she said. “It’s been very difficult in the past because it’s a very complex trait.”

Tieman has been researching tomatoes for about 15 years, she said, and is trying to give breeders a tool with her research.

David Wolff, a senior plant breeder at Sakata Seeds in Fort Myers, is familiar with the research Tieman's team has been developing. 

"It's been exciting for me because this flavor project has been a focus these past few years," Wolff said. "It's a fun benefit working with vegetables and tasting cool things."

Wolff has been working with Sakata for 21 years after moving to Southwest Florida from Texas. Sakata is a global company that's been in business for more than 100 years. The company focuses on selling flower and vegetable seeds, and the tomato varieties Wolff works with are bred mostly for the North American market. 

Tomatoes grown in Florida are geared toward short growing periods of three or four months, Wolff said. The seed types for these periods are what the industry calls "determinate" while longer period seeds are "indeterminate."

"It can be difficult to strike a balance between yield, size and flavor," he said. "Most of the commercial tomatoes grown in Florida are determinate," and it's easier for indeterminate varieties to have more flavor.

Tieman and her team have looked at more than 400 different varieties of tomato, some heirloom and some modern varieties, to determine the pieces of DNA that are important for flavor. The hope is to add them back into the modern fruit, she said.

While varieties like heirloom tomatoes are known for a more flavorful fruit, modern tomatoes have been bred for higher yields and shelf life, which inadvertently sacrificed some flavor.

“Heirloom yield is low,” Tieman said. “A grower may get two or three fruits off one plant and they have to be eaten right away.”

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The researchers started by having taste panels where consumers would rate the tomatoes. Tieman and her team would then look at the biochemistry — sugars, acids and aroma compounds — and correlate what people liked with the variety of tomato.

“The tomato is a special case because so many compounds make a tomato taste a like a tomato,” she said. “That makes it really difficult to breed for flavor.”

The new research and its findings should be available to breeders and growers within the next few years, Tieman said.

“There’s nothing like a good-tasting tomato,” she said. “This is our first real attempt to breed (flavor) in, and we will keep working to improve and understand how DNA affects the taste.”

Growers and consumers may see an acceleration of tomato varieties with better flavor in the coming years, Wolff said. The market has a demand for high yield, good flavor varieties The Tasti-Lee was a good example of a tomato that sold well because of its flavor.

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Almost all of Florida’s southern counties produce tomatoes, according to the Florida Tomato Committee’s website. The state produces “virtually all of the fresh-market, field-grown tomatoes in the U.S. from October through June each year.”

Michael Schadler, the executive vice president of the Florida Tomato Committee, said he supports UF’s breeding efforts.

“The challenge with breeding tomatoes for commercial production is balancing agronomic attributes, such as yield and disease resistance, with taste, logistical demands, and market realities,” he wrote in an email. “This is an ever advancing science and our growers are continually working with both private and public breeders to improve tomato taste and quality.”

Historically, breeding is grower driven, Wolff said.

"Growers here in Florida get a lot of feedback from customers," he said. "There's definitely been more of an emphasis in the last several years of selecting for better flavor. There's much more interest from growers to have consumer-oriented traits."

While the research Tieman is working on focuses on Tasti-Lee tomatoes, she said she hopes the technology and tools will be used for different varieties.

Once the tools are available, “I think (growers) will get a higher price for a better tomato and be able to sell more tomatoes,” she said.

Karl Schneider is an environment reporter at Naples Daily News. Follow him on Twitter: @karlstartswithk