Should Tomatoes Go in the Fridge? Scientists Tested It, and the Answer Is “It Depends on the Clock”

Few kitchen arguments last as long as this one. Counter or fridge?

In 2016, a team including tomato researchers at the University of Florida took it to the lab. They stored ripe tomatoes at 41°F (5°C), close to a home fridge, for one, three or seven days, then let them sit at room temperature to recover.

What they found, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences:

Sugars and acids held up. Those parts of taste weren’t significantly affected by the cold.

Aroma did not, after a week. Tomato flavor leans heavily on volatile compounds, the ones you smell. After one or three days of chilling, the researchers saw no significant loss. After seven days, levels were significantly lower, and they stayed lower even after three days back at room temperature.

People could taste it. A consumer panel of 76 people rated tomatoes chilled for a week lower for overall liking than fresh ones.

The reason is genetic. Cold reduced the activity of genes behind key aroma-making enzymes, and some of them didn’t bounce back after warming up. The paper linked this to temporary changes in DNA methylation, one of the ways cells turn genes on and off.

Then the plot thickened. Discover reported on a 2020 study from the University of Göttingen in Germany. After simulated shipping and store handling, that team kept ripe tomatoes in a slightly warmer fridge, 44.6°F, for four days, and found that the tomato variety mattered more to taste than storage did. But the lead author told Discover they “would not promote the cold storage of tomatoes,” because the colder and longer, the worse the effects.

And there’s a catch nobody can fix at home. Tomato scientists told Discover that supermarket tomatoes have probably already been refrigerated on the long trip to you.