Hacker News Reader

Comment by FrojoS | Hacker News Reader

Can confirm. Does this also apply to canned Tomatos or are those allowed to ripe on soil, because damage didn’t matter? I think they taste better and I’ve Heard- than many top chefs prefer them over “fresh” tomatoes for cooking.

View on HN

Canned tomatoes are really interesting. They are a different variety of tomatoes (Roma tomatoes) that can be picked via machine. That's also why they taste differently. The automated picking is why they are cheaper (plus the variety is better for quantity). One wouldn't be able to sell the automatically picked tomatoes uncanned since their skin gets damaged.

I buy fresh Roma Tomatoes at Costco all the time. They come in some horrible plastic packaging that keeps them safe and with the vines still on. Not as good as home grown, but not terrible.

I think they're picked right when they start to ripen then finish in the box/transit.

Good canned tomatoes are canned very quickly after being picked. They'll beat most supermarket tomatoes. They'll lose to fresh tomatoes picked at an appropriate time and eaten fresh.

If tomatoes need to be red when they are canned, then I am going to make an educated guess that what you get in a can is truly ripe, red tomatoes canned near the farm operation. Never thought about that until now, makes sense though. I knew fruits and veggies are harvested pre-ripe for shipping and handling purposes, but canned don't need anything like that.

I tried a few canned tomatoes I don't think they are good. Maybe it will be good if it is produced in the farm. I believe most of them are produced in a factory, then you still need to transport tomatoes from the farm to a factory safely.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com