Why not eat ripened tomatoes?

Tomatoes are one of the most widely grown vegetables in the world. With the development of constant-temperature greenhouses, we can now eat fresh tomatoes all year round. However, sometimes the tomatoes we buy, although very red in appearance, are hard when pinched, and the flesh is still green after cutting. This is because a ripening agent called ethephon is used in tomatoes. In order to ripen tomatoes as early as possible and sell them at a good price, vegetable farmers often use ethephon wiping on the fruits, soaking the fruits and spraying the whole plant to accelerate ripening. So, is it safe to eat artificially ripened tomatoes?

So, what exactly is ethylene? Ethylene is a gas commonly found in plants. Mature fruits can also release ethylene. Its main function is to promote fruit ripening. For example, persimmons just picked in autumn are relatively hard. If you want to make the persimmons soft, you can put the persimmons and ripe apples together. The ethylene released by the apples can promote the ripening and softening of the persimmons. In the early days, people used ethylene-containing coal stove gas to help fruits ripen. But because ethylene is a gas, it is very inconvenient to store, transport and use, so ethephon came into being.

Ethephon is a synthetic plant growth regulator that is easily soluble in water. Most of them are ethephon aqueous agents with a concentration of 40 on the market. After dilution with clean water, ethylene can be released to accelerate fruit ripening when the pH value is greater than 4 and the temperature is higher than 20°C. According to my country's maximum residue limit standards for pesticides in food, the maximum residue limit of ethephon in tomatoes per kilogram is 2 mg.

Using ethephon to ripen tomatoes will affect the quality, taste and flavor of tomatoes. Everyone hopes to eat naturally ripe tomatoes, but ripe tomatoes are prone to spoilage and are inconvenient to transport. Therefore, when picking, vegetable farmers always choose tomatoes that are easy to transport and still green in color. After all, ethephon is a low-toxic organic substance. Some people worry that ethephon will cause premature puberty in children and make people age faster. These worries are unnecessary. Plant hormones and animal hormones are two completely different types of substances, and plant hormones cannot play any role in the human body. Ethephon is easily soluble in water. If you are worried about residue when buying tomatoes, just soak them in water and rinse them for a few minutes.

This article was scientifically reviewed by Ruan Guangfeng, director of the business department of Kexin Food and Nutrition Information Exchange Center.