No, that the tomatoes no longer taste like the ones in that salad that your grandmother made in town, that they only needed a splash of olive oil to take you to glory. Does longing betray you or is it true that food has lost its flavor?
If you think your grandmother's tomatoes were tastier, you are correct, it is not a myth. As Francisco Pérez-Alfocea, researcher at the Department of Plant Nutrition at CEBAS-CSIC, explains, the varieties grown today have lost flavor compared to the traditional ones.
Why have fruits and vegetables lost flavor?
- It is intended to last longer. The foods we eat today come from varieties that are more productive and more resistant to disease, so they are more commercial, but less tasty.
- And make it more "beautiful". "The loss of flavor in food is caused by two issues linked to the new consumer society: the preference for beautiful varieties and maturation in chambers," says Paula Álvarez, spokesperson for the Union of Small Farmers and Ranchers (UPA). The fact that we eat through our eyes implies that "farmers plant varieties that are more palatable to the eye than to taste," explains Álvarez.
- Matured in cameras. With regard to taste, “the flavor of the fruit ripened on the plant, where it receives everything it needs until harvest, is not the same as that of the one that has remained in a cold room or with a controlled atmosphere, where it is intended that ripening arrives as late as possible to extend its duration ”, explains Pérez-Alfocea.
If you know little about food, do you feed less?
No, in this sense you can be calm. A fruit or vegetable may have no flavor, but provide all the nutrients expected of it. The flavor does not influence, but the maturation does. Now, what can happen is that when the food is collected before it has matured in the plant, the concentration of nutrients is lower, and, as we saw, this coincides with the fact that it may also have less flavor.
In addition, certain stressful conditions (eg, lack of water, salinity, excess solar radiation) that occur naturally in fields can be beneficial to plants. And is that to defend against stress, the plant generates more nutritional compounds (antioxidants and vitamins), and therefore produces more tasty and nutritious fruits.
Do pesticides make them taste less?
According to Professor Rosa M. Lamuela-Raventós, PhD in Pharmacy at the Nutrition Department of the University of Barcelona, “pesticides should not be perceived (that is, they would not influence the taste). What happens is that organically grown plants suffer more stress and generate more polyphenols, antioxidants and aromatic substances, which is why they tend to be tastier ”.
And do they affect our health?
According to Ariane Vettorazzi, professor of Toxicology at the University of Navarra, we should only be concerned if the residues left by pesticides at harvest are not within the maximum legal residue limits, “which are calculated taking into account the toxicological reference values that scientists estimate them as safe for health based on the type of toxicity that may be associated with the substance (cancer, endocrine disruption, neurotoxicity, etc.) ”.
The problem is that today “we continue to be exposed to pesticides that are no longer authorized in the EU, either because they are used irregularly, because they can be used in other countries or because they are very persistent substances in the environment and are still present. as environmental pollutants, ”says Vettorazzi. This is the case of DDT, banned in Europe in the 70s and which has been linked to Alzheimer's, according to a study by the University of Emery (USA).
How can you protect yourself?
The best advice is ecological and, in addition, wash and peel fruits and vegetables well before consumption to eliminate any pesticide residue. This also protects you from poisoning caused by bacteria and viruses.
If you want to know more about your diet, take our test on healthy and balanced eating and check if you need to make changes in your diet and habits.
