Question

why tomato is used to prepare vegetable salad though it is afruit

Answer 1

If a tomato is a fruit, why don't we put it in a fruit salad?

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4 ANSWERS

Mridula Bhagwat, Technical Writer

Answered Feb 23

The word 'Fruit' has two definitions. A botanical, and a general dictionary one.

Botanical Definition of Fruit: It is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants formed from the ovary after flowering.

So, botanically, tomato is a fruit, as it is the result of fertilization taken place in the flower, and has seeds.

General meaning of fruit: The sweet and fleshy product of a tree or plant that contains seed and can be eaten as food.

So, for a layman, tomato is not a fruit, as it is not sweet.

In fruit salad, we use fleshy sweet fruits, which do not necessarily fit into botanical definition of fruit, e.g. banana. Botanically, Banana is a false fruit. A layman calls it a fruit, because it is fleshy and sweet. We do not use tomato in fruit salad, as it is not sweet.

Answer 2

True fruits are developed from the ovary in the base of the flower, and contain the seeds of the plant (though cultivated forms may be seedless). ... So, the answer to the question is that a tomato is technically the fruit of the tomato plant, but it's used as a vegetable in cooking.