Is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable?
Botanically, a tomato is a fruit, because it grows from a flower and contains seeds. In cooking it is treated as a vegetable because it is savory, not sweet.
Botanists define a fruit as the part of a flowering plant that develops from the flower's ovary and holds the seeds. By that definition, tomatoes are fruits, and more specifically berries. So are cucumbers, peppers, eggplants, pumpkins and even pea pods.
Cooks use a different system based on taste. Vegetables are savory parts of plants eaten in main dishes and salads, while fruits are sweet and often eaten as desserts or snacks. Tomatoes clearly belong with vegetables in the kitchen.
The court case
In 1893, the US Supreme Court ruled in Nix v. Hedden that tomatoes should be taxed as vegetables under import law. The judges agreed that tomatoes are botanically fruits but said ordinary people think of them as vegetables. Tomatoes originally came from western South America and were grown by the Aztecs before Spanish explorers brought them to Europe in the 1500s.
Did You Know?
There are thousands of tomato varieties, in colors from yellow and green to purple and almost black. China is the world's largest tomato producer, followed by India and Turkey.