Tomato: Fruit or Vegetable?


Is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable?  

124 members have voted

  1. 1. Is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable?

    • Fruit
      71
    • Vegetable
      46


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Botanically speaking a tomato is the ovary, together with its seeds, of a flowering plant. This would mean that technically it would be considered a fruit. However, from a culinary perspective the tomato is typically served as a meal, or part of a main course of a meal, meaning that it would be considered a vegetable. This argument has led to actual legal implications in the United States. In 1887, U.S. tariff laws which imposed a duty on vegetables but not on fruits caused the tomato's status to become a matter of legal importance. The U.S. Supreme Court settled this controversy in 1893, declaring that the tomato is a vegetable, along with cucumbers, squashes, beans, and peas, using the popular definition which classifies vegetables by use, that they are generally served with dinner and not dessert. The case is known as Nix v. Hedden.

Considering the scientific attributes, it's a fruit. But how would you classify it?

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Well, the quote you provided it answers it pretty well... Most people will view it as a vegetable because they are probably eating it as a food, not examining it in a lab.

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It's a vegetable :yes:

Horticulturally speaking, the tomato is a vegetable plant. The plant is an annual and nonwoody. Most fruits, from a horticulture perspective, are grown on a woody plant (apples, cherries, raspberries, oranges) with the exception of strawberries.

In 1893, the United States Supreme Court ruled the tomato was a "vegetable" and therefore subject to import taxes. The suit was brought by a consortium of growers who wanted it declared a vegetable to protect U.S. crop development and prices. Fruits, at that time, were not subjected to import taxes and foreign countries could flood the market with lower priced produce. (A hundred years really hasn't changed anything.)

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I'll go with the technical/scientific choice rather than the legal solution of convenience.

Plus, I'll have a tomato for dessert tonight just to be contrary.

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I see it as a vegetable. Supermarket do too.

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Since when supermarkets are the source of all knowledge :-)

I see it as a fruit, though most people think of it as a as a veggie. Similar case with whales and dolphins and orcas. They swim in water, so they have to be fishes, don't they :) ?

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Since when supermarkets are the source of all knowledge :-)

I see it as a fruit, though most people think of it as a as a veggie. Similar case with whales and dolphins and orcas. They swim in water, so they have to be fishes, don't they :) ?

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I always had to laugh at the Buffalo Bills's slogan of "Squish the Fish" when they played Miami.

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It's a fruit.

So is a Bean Pod also confused to be a vegetable.

As for supermarkets knowing anything about what they sell, ho ho, they should only sell seasonal goods then we might have a better diet in the UK.

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The confusion about 'fruit' and 'vegetable' arises because of the differences in usage between scientists and cooks. Scientifically speaking, a tomato is definitely a fruit. True fruits are developed from the ovary in the base of the flower, and contain the seeds of the plant (though cultivated forms may be seedless). Blueberries, raspberries, and oranges are true fruits, and so are many kinds of nut. Some plants have a soft part which supports the seeds and is also called a 'fruit', though it is not developed from the ovary: the strawberry is an example. As far as cooking is concerned, some things which are strictly fruits may be called 'vegetables' because they are used in savoury rather than sweet cooking. The tomato, though technically a fruit, is often used as a vegetable, and a bean pod is also technically a fruit. The term 'vegetable' is more generally used of other edible parts of plants, such as cabbage leaves, celery stalks, and potato tubers, which are not strictly the fruit of the plant from which they come. Occasionally the term 'fruit' may be used to refer to a part of a plant which is not a fruit, but which is used in sweet cooking: rhubarb, for example. So a tomato is the fruit of the tomato plant, but can be used as a vegetable in cooking. :D

Much like the Banana is a herb and not a fruit ;)

Is a banana a fruit or a herb?

Both. A banana (the yellow thing you peel and eat) is undoubtedly a fruit (containing the seeds of the plant: see answer regarding tomatoes), though since commercially grown banana plants are sterile, the seeds are reduced to little specks. However, the banana plant, though it is called a 'banana-tree' in popular usage, is technically regarded as a herbaceous plant (or 'herb'), not a tree, because the stem does not contain true woody tissue.

http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq.../banana?view=uk

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a tomato is a fruit for 2 reasons

1) it produces a flower which is pollenated and a berry is formed on the plant.

2) its a vehicle to spread its own seed. (the tomato)

askoxford.com>>

The confusion about 'fruit' and 'vegetable' arises because of the differences in usage between scientists and cooks. Scientifically speaking, a tomato is definitely a fruit. True fruits are developed from the ovary in the base of the flower, and contain the seeds of the plant (though cultivated forms may be seedless).The tomato, though technically a fruit, is often used as a vegetable, and a bean pod is also technically a fruit. The term 'vegetable' is more generally used of other edible parts of plants, such as cabbage leaves, celery stalks, and potato tubers, which are not strictly the fruit of the plant from which they come. Occasionally the term 'fruit' may be used to refer to a part of a plant which is not a fruit, but which is used in sweet cooking: rhubarb, for example.

supermarkets cant be trusted they sell a product called "Baby Corn" its not fekking baby corn the vegetable is called Okra!!! (one of my pet hates)

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^^^^

I still cannot understand how it can be used as a vegetable in cooking.

I cook the tomato as a fruit always, never crosses my mind that it could be a vegetable I'm using.

I think it's usually that people eat cheap tomatoes, you know the bitter ones.

Try a sweet red vine tomato, you will soon realise it's a fruit.

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I think it's usually that people eat cheap tomatoes, you know the bitter ones.

Try a sweet red vine tomato, you will soon realise it's a fruit.

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Yea, the small vined-ripened really red coloured tomatoes that you get from a fruit store are very different then those big-blunky cheap things from the discount supermarket.

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

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Tomato

A Red Tomato

Scientific classification

Kingdom: Plantae

Subkingdom: Tracheobionta

Division: Magnoliophyta

Class: Magnoliopsida

Subclass: Asteridae

Order: Solanales

Family: Solanaceae

Genus: Solanum

Species: S. lycopersicum

Binomial name

Solanum lycopersicum

L.

The tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) is a plant in the Solanaceae or nightshade family, native to South, Central America and Mexico. It is an annual plant, typically growing to 1-3 m long, with a weakly woody stem that usually scrambles over other plants. The leaves are 10-25 cm long, pinnate, with 5-9 leaflets, each leaflet up to 8 cm long, with a serrated margin; both the stem and leaves are densely glandular-hairy. The flowers are 1-2 cm across, yellow, with five pointed lobes on the corolla; they are borne in a cyme of 3-12 together. The fruit is an edible, brightly coloured (usually red, from the pigment lycopene) berry, 1-2 cm diameter in wild plants, commonly much larger in cultivated forms.

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biologically it is a fruit of a tomato plant. Nutritionally it is a vegetable.

M-W: Fruit:a product of plant growth (as grain, vegetables, or cotton) notice how it has vegetables included in the def. Its like comparing apples to oranges (no pun intended ;))

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