ABSTRACT
A consumer tends to judge the goodness of a fruit by its color. Bananas are yellow. Oranges are orange. Tomatoes are red. Grass is green, although not a fruit and largely irrelevant to fruit selection and purchasing decisions. Tomatoes do not first appear red but green and gradually progress through multiple ripening stages to red. As tomatoes mature and ripen from their initial dark-green color to a bright red, chlorophyll content diminishes while carotenoid concentrations increase. Over its long and muddled history, however, the tomato has been bred for a range of colors that extends well behind the traditional fire-engine red. Regardless of whether a ripe tomato is red or some other color, color plays a vital role in identifying the perfect tomato. Sugar is part of what makes fruit delicious. Tomatoes are no exception. While a tomato is between 90% and 95% water, 50% of what remains is sugar and is represented by glucose, fructose, and sucrose.
