History of Tomatoes Timeline

By the early 17th century tomatoes were used as food in Spain, as documented in Lope de Vega's play La octava maravilla, which praised something 'lovelier than' the fruit.

In certain areas of Italy, such as Florence, the fruit was used solely as a tabletop decoration until it was incorporated into the local cuisine in the late 17th or early 18th century.

The earliest discovered cookbook with tomato recipes was published in Naples in 1692, though the author had apparently obtained these recipes from Spanish sources.

By 1820, tomatoes were described as 'to be seen in great abundance in all our vegetable markets' and used by all the best cooks, though garden cultivation was still sometimes noted merely for their unusual appearance, and cooking with them was associated with exotic Italian or Jewish cuisine.

After 1860, it was often claimed that Americans believed tomatoes were poisonous into the 1820s, but historical evidence suggests the belief was never actually widespread.

Livingston began developing the tomato as a commercial crop, aiming to grow tomatoes smooth in contour, uniform in size, and sweet in flavor, transforming the tomato into a reliable agricultural product.

Livingston's first breed of tomato, the Paragon, was introduced in 1870, launching a series of influential commercial varieties.

In 1875 Livingston introduced the Acme, said to be in the parentage of most tomato cultivars developed over the next twenty-five years.

The U.S. Supreme Court settled the controversy on 10 May 1893 by declaring that, for purposes of the Tariff of 1883 only, the tomato is a vegetable, based on the popular definition classifying vegetables by use—they are generally served with dinner and not dessert.

Image source: Nix v. Hedden

A mutant 'u' phenotype discovered in the mid-20th century caused fruits to ripen uniformly, changing how commercial tomatoes were bred—though uniform ripening later proved detrimental to flavor.

Ira and George Gershwin immortalized the word's dual pronunciations ('tomahto' vs 'tomayto') in their 1937 song 'Let's Call the Whole Thing Off'.

Image source: Let's Call the Whole Thing Off

In 1963, The New York Times explained the name 'Love Apple' as a French misreading of the Italian pomo dei Mori ('the Moors' apple') as pomme d'amour ('apple of love').

Image source: Tomato

The review-aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes evokes the meaning of pelted rotten produce, though its founder cites a scene in the 1992 film Leolo as the immediate source of the name.

Image source: Rotten Tomatoes

An international consortium of researchers from 10 countries began sequencing the tomato genome in 2004, laying groundwork for one of the most complete plant genome projects.

On 30 August 2007, as many as 40,000 Spaniards gathered in Buñol to throw 115,000 kg of tomatoes at each other during La Tomatina, the famous tomato-throwing festival.

Image source: La Tomatina

A 2008 salmonella outbreak caused the temporary removal of tomatoes from stores and restaurants across the United States and parts of Canada.

Image source: 2008 United States salmonellosis outbreak

In 2009, Ohio passed a law making the tomato the state's official fruit; tomato juice had already been the state's official beverage since 1965.

Image source: Ohio

A prerelease version of the sequenced tomato genome was made available in December 2009, giving researchers early access to the genetic data.

In a 2011 scientific review, the European Food Safety Authority concluded that lycopene did not favorably influence DNA, skin exposed to ultraviolet radiation, heart function, or vision.

Image source: Lycopene

The complete genome for the cultivar Heinz 1706 was published on 31 May 2012 in the journal Nature, a milestone in plant genomics.

Image source: Heinz

Wang et al., 2019 found phage combination therapies could reduce the impact of bacterial wilt in tomatoes, either by reducing bacterial abundance or selecting for resistant but slow-growing genetics.

Image source: Phage therapy

The latest reference tomato genome published in 2021 measured 799 MB and encoded 34,384 predicted proteins spread over 12 chromosomes.

In 2023, world production of tomatoes reached 192 million tonnes, led by China with 36% of the total, followed by India, Turkey, and the United States.

A 2025 study suggests the potato lineage may have been created by hybridization of a plant from the tomato lineage with a plant from a related Solanum species, deepening the evolutionary connection between the two crops Linnaeus first grouped together in 1753.

Image source: Potato