Why Is A Tomato A Fruit?

Why is a tomato a fruit?

According to Collins Dictionary, fruit or a fruit is something which grows on a tree or bush and which contains seeds or a pit covered by a substance that you can eat. Also, Oxford Dictionary defines fruit as the part of a plant that consists of one or more seeds and flesh, can be eaten as food and usually tastes sweet. In layman's terms, fruit can be any part of the plant, as long as this part contains seeds, then it is a fruit. Therefore, a tomato that can contains tomato seeds should be a fruit.

But this is not without objections, as some would argue tomatoes are vegetable!

What is a vegetable?

However, Oxford Dictionary's definition for a vegetable is a plant or part of a plant that is eaten as food. Potatoes, beans and onions are all vegetables. Collins Dictionary gives a similar explanation. Merriam-Webster's definition of vegetable is: a usually herbaceous plant (such as the cabbage, bean, or potato) grown for an edible part that is usually eaten as part of a meal.

Although a tomato is not such a part of the plant as roots, stems, leaves, etc., from the perspective of botany, tomatoes are the fruits of bush plants, similar to cucumbers and chilli peppers. They can also be classified as vegetables.

So, in fact, tomatoes have two identities as both fruits and vegetables.

Are tomatoes vegetable or fruit? The historical story behind it!

The historical source of difficulty in determining tomato as fruits or vegetables can be traced back to the "Knicks v. Heden" case in the United States in 1893.

According to the Tariff Act promulgated by the U.S. in 1883, the import of fruits to the country was free of duties. However, imported vegetables are subject to a 10% tariff. the Knicks three brothers, the importer, sued Heden to the U.S. Supreme Court. The plaintiff's lawyer cited the definitions of "fruit" and "vegetable" in the "Webster's Dictionary", "Worcester Dictionary" and "Empire Dictionary" as testimony, and summoned two Witnesses with 30 years of fruit and vegetable sales experience.

• Then the plaintiff's lawyer read the dictionary's definition of "tomato": Solanaceae, native to South America, the fruit is a round berry, usually red or yellow. It also shows that the fruit of tomato and fruit are the same word, so it is a kind of fruit.
• The defendant's lawyer also quoted the "Webster's Dictionary" and "Wooth Definitions in the Special Dictionary and the Imperial Dictionary. Borrowing the "Webster's Dictionary", I explained the meanings of peas, eggplant, cucumber, zucchini and sweet pepper. Then, we also eat their fruits, but can you classify them as fruits?
• Scientists from the Royal Botanic Gardens Wolfgang Stuppi directly denied the definition of "vegetable" in the three dictionaries: "In the sense of botany, the word vegetable does not exist at all." Biologist Tamara Kershner immediately agreed...
• However, nutrition expert Joshua Sami disagrees with the obliteration of "vegetables": "Vegetables are a cooking term. I checked Hello De McGee's "Food and Cooking", which is called the "Bible of the Food World", wrote: "Vegetables only had their present meaning only a few centuries ago. They basically mean neither fruit nor Seed plant ingredients.'"

...

After the experts' free debate, the court soon got the result and the jury The group unanimously supports the defendant: Tomato is a vegetable, not a fruit...