Is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable? Also, what makes a fruit a fruit and a vegetable a vegetable?!
Answers: I have heard a tomato as both and I just want to know which it is!
Botanically, a tomato is the ovary, together with its seeds, of a flowering plant: a fruit or, more precisely, a berry. However, the tomato is not as sweet as those foodstuffs usually called fruits and, from a culinary standpoint, it is typically served as part of a salad or main course of a meal, as are vegetables, rather than at dessert, as are fruits. As noted above, the term "vegetable" has no botanical meaning and is purely a culinary term.
This argument has had legal implications in the United States. In 1887, U.S. tariff laws that imposed a duty on vegetables but not on fruits caused the tomato's status to become a matter of legal importance. The U.S. Supreme Court settled the controversy in 1893 by declaring that the tomato is a vegetable, based on the popular definition that classifies vegetables by use, that they are generally served with dinner and not dessert (Nix v. Hedden (149 U.S. 304)). The holding of the case applies only to the interpretation of the Tariff Act of March 3, 1883, and the court did not purport to reclassify the tomato for botanical or other purposes other than paying a tax under a tariff act.
The tomato has been designated the state vegetable of New Jersey. Arkansas took both sides by declaring the "South Arkansas Vine Ripe Pink Tomato" to be both the state fruit and the state vegetable in the same law, citing both its botanical and culinary classifications. In 2006, the Ohio House of Representatives passed a law that would have declared the tomato to be the official state fruit, but the bill died when the Ohio Senate failed to act on it. Tomato juice has been the official beverage of Ohio since 1965. A.W. Livingston, of Reynoldsburg, Ohio played a large part in popularizing the tomato in the late 1800s.
Due to the scientific definition of a fruit, the tomato remains a fruit when not dealing with US tariffs. Nor is it the only culinary vegetable that is a botanical fruit: eggplants, cucumbers, and squashes of all kinds (such as zucchini and pumpkins) share the same ambiguity.
Fruit.
tomato is a fruit, if it has seeds in it its a fruit, if its on the stalk or vine or whatever, its a vegetable
tomato is a fruit. most fruits are sweet and most veggies are........... well.... not sweet
It is officially a fruit. It is cause it is.
tomato's are fruits. i dont know why. but i know they are.
fruits are sweet and veggies aren't
fruit: The ripened ovary or ovaries of a seed-bearing plant, together with accessory parts, containing the seeds and occurring in a wide variety of forms.
vegetable: plant cultivated for an edible part, such as the root of the beet, the leaf of spinach, or the flower buds of broccoli or cauliflower; any member of the vegetable kingdom
A tomato is a fruit. I have no idea what contributed to its identity.
it's a fruit....fruits have seeds and veggies do NOT!
Tomato is fruit.
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Tomatoes are both!
Fruit for the fact that scientifically they are classified as fruits though commonly we call them vegetables, so it's actually both!
Definitely a fruit.
A tomato is a fruit. A reason for this is because it has seeds in it's core. For example a cherry, apple, orange all have seeds in the center!
tomato is officially a fruit. a fruit is something that grown in the ground vegetable is something that doesnt grow in the ground
Fruit - seed structure and how hit grows.
fruit has seeds. Avacado is a fruit. Tomato is a fruit. Kiwi is a fruit. Lettuce is not.
fruits have seeds. tomatoes have seeds. tomato is technically a fruit, but has been declared a vegetable by, and you'll have to check me on this, the FDA
I call it a vegetable, but anything that comes from a plant is called its 'fruit.'
Typically a fruit has seeds on the inside, such as watermelon and apples. Tomatoes have seeds inside, which would classfiy them as a fruit.
fruit because of the seeds
It's a fruit but I can't recall why!
vegtables grow in the ground
fruit grow on trees or bushes
Fruit. It has seeds on the interior. (So yes, this makes things like pumpkins and cucumbers fruit--technically.)
Fruits have seeds and vegetables don't.
Tomatoes are fruits of the tomato bush, but they're generally considered vegetables in the real world. But heck it doesn't matter anyway, eat it or don't. D:
Eggplants are also fruits, but most people consider those vegtables.
ITS A FRUIT
a tomato, fruit, fruits have seeds, vegtables dont
fruit...anything with seeds is a fruit (it doesn't have to be sweet) i don't know about vegetables though
a vegatable grows inside the soil and fruits grow on trees. i think a tomato is a fruit
tomato is a fruit. fruit is on the vine or and above ground. vegetables grow out of the ground..
A tomato is a fruit.
This is because it has seeds.
Everything (with a few exceptions) with seeds is a fruit.
Hope to have helped. =)
Tomoato is a vegtable silly :)
And a fruit is ready to eat and vegtables have to be cooked.