New products in the fresh produce arena serve as a powerful means of increasing Israel's export of fresh produce to overseas markets.
Therefore, breeding new varieties of fruits and vegetables is a top priority project at The Volcani Centre in Israel, where intensive research projects are the name of the game.
The latest off the research line is the Tomaisin, a new variety of tomato non-existent in nature, which within two weeks after ripening shrinks in size. It does this while still on the plant, hence the name Tomaisins, a combination of tomato and raisins.
Tomaisins is also the name of a company set up specifically to promote the commercialisation of the new variety.
Dr Ari Shefer of The Volcani Centre, who heads the Tasty Tomatoes Project at Volcani, in cooperation with Israel's noted seed company Zeraim Gedera, notes that ordinarily tomato varieties do not shrink either in nature or while on the shelf. He explains that the reason for this is the oily material that envelopes and seals the fruit's exterior, thus preventing water evaporation.
The Tomaisins' peel contains tiny cracks enabling water evaporation. At the end of this process there are dried tomatoes, on the plant, achieved naturally.
There are several uses for the dried tomato: by chefs, and more so in the food processing industry.
A report in Ha'aretz notes that instead of transporting regular tomatoes for processing, crushing and drying, the tomatoes-dried-in-the-field-naturally can be transported to the processing plant at half the volume capacity compared with regular whole tomatoes. This will significantly reduce operating costs, the report says.
Other breeding projects at The Volcani Centre include inter alia, a programme to improve the taste of melons. The researchers have found a "strange" sweet and sour melon variety with a taste resembling that of the exotic fruits mango and pineapple. In order to differentiate the sweet and sour melon from all other melons, the researchers are now trying to give it a "unique" structure.
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