Ok easy question i think....?

Question

Me and my friend are arguing...i heard in school that tomatoes are a fruit....true or false???

ok so could it b considered both?

Answer 1

This info from AskOxford.com will help answer your question:

The confusion about 'fruit' and 'vegetable' arises because of the differences in usage between scientists and cooks. Scientifically speaking, a tomato is definitely a fruit. 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). As far as cooking is concerned, some things which are strictly fruits may be called 'vegetables' because they are used in savoury rather than sweet cooking. The tomato, though technically a fruit, is often used as a vegetable, and a bean pod is also technically a fruit. The term 'vegetable' is more generally used of other edible parts of plants, such as cabbage leaves, celery stalks, and potato tubers, which are not strictly the fruit of the plant from which they come. Occasionally the term 'fruit' may be used to refer to a part of a plant which is not a fruit, but which is used in sweet cooking: rhubarb, for example. So a tomato is the fruit of the tomato plant, but can be used as a vegetable in cooking.

Answer 2

True based on it's botanical classification. A tomato is the ovary, together with it's seeds, of a flowery plant thus a fruit or more precise a berry. Think about any other fruit - apple, orange, watermelon, banana etc. They are all fruits because they are all ovaries that encase the seeds of a plant that produces flowers. Cherry trees flower as do apple and orange trees. The vines of the watermelon plant flower. And yes, even the banana tree flowers.

However; legally, the tomato is a vegetable as ruled by the United States Supreme Court in 1887. The question arose because of taxes that were put on vegetables but not fruits. They ruled that a tomato was a vegetable because that is how it is used and perceived by all that use it. It's used as a vegetable in salads, that they are served with meals and not deserts.

But the tomato remains a fruit because of it's botanical and scientific classification and the only time it is considered a vegetable is in laws dealing with tariffs (taxes) on vegetables.

Answer 3

Tomatoes are a fruit.

"Many foods are botanically fruit but are treated as vegetables in cooking. These include cucurbits (e.g., squash, pumpkin, and cucumber), tomato, peas, beans, corn, eggplant, and sweet pepper, spices, such as allspice and chillies.[2] Occasionally, though rarely, a culinary "fruit" will not be a true fruit in the botanical sense. For example, rhubarb may be considered a fruit, though only the astringent petiole is edible.[7] In the commercial world, European Union rules define carrot as a fruit for the purposes of measuring the proportion of "fruit" contained in carrot jam.[8] In the culinary sense, a fruit is usually any sweet tasting plant product associated with seed(s), a vegetable is any savoury or less sweet plant product, and a nut any hard, oily, and shelled plant product.[9]"

This quote from this website:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruit

Answer 4

Fruit

Answer 5

Botanically it is a fruit-in cooking it is used more as a vegetable. But who cares? They are tasty all the same.

Answer 6

It is a fruit. The "flower" of the plant is edible, thus a fruit.

Answer 7

fruit

Answer 8

They are fruit, because of they're juices.

Answer 9

it is fruit honey..thanks!

Answer 10

very true