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A brief history of the tomato: if a small, ugly, and acidic fruit became one of the kings of our kitchen, why shouldn't we trust novel foods?
From tomato to synthetic meat: the debate on novel foods between new opportunities and old prejudices. Despite scientific progress, regulatory gaps and the fear of the unknown still leave many questions unanswered in public opinion.
Maurizio Piergiovanni
Researcher at University of Parma
Published: January 20, 2025
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It’s curious how history can shuffle the cards, transforming the way we perceive things and, with it, our beliefs. When thinking of Italy, especially when speaking to a foreigner, few things identify the peninsula as its stereotypes and image do. The gondolas of Venice, the "roars" of the V12 engine in Maranello, the scents that fill the Ballarò market, the "silkiness" of the velvet beach in Senigallia, the explosion of flavor in every bite of pizza—there’s something for every taste (and every sense).
And then, there’s pizza, a global symbol of Italian identity and a cornerstone of a vast economic chain that spans across all sectors, from agriculture, which produces the ingredients, to the industry that transforms them, to the trade that supplies large distribution or expresses excellence through thousands of pizzerias. Pizza, in its iconic version, the Margherita (which serves as the base for many others), is made with simple ingredients, which are also expressions of Italian identity: flour, tomato sauce, and mozzarella.
While flour and mozzarella can truly be considered Italian products, as wheat and cows have always been present on the peninsula, tomato sauce is merely a great masterpiece of Italian imagination.
The tomato plant "arrived" in Europe about 50 years after Christopher Columbus discovered America. It was from the "New World" that some seeds were gifted to Eleonora di Toledo, a Castilian aristocrat and wife of Cosimo de' Medici, who had them cultivated at the Florentine residence of Torre del Gallo, driven by the curiosity of someone wishing to see with their own eyes a world far across months of navigation, a world they would never visit. It was in fact the Spaniards who first brought this plant with red, tart fruits to the Old Continent, widely consumed in Central and South America and believed to have aphrodisiac properties. The first plants and seeds arrived as a gift to the Spanish aristocracy, of which the Florentine grand duchess was a part.
The first bites, the first contacts with the palate, and the first olfactory notes reaching the nose gave the Grand Dukes of Tuscany the opportunity to experience a piece of these distant new lands while remaining comfortably just a few steps from Florence. Curiosity, interest, distrust, fear—these, and many others, were the emotions felt during that first taste. Because while today the tomato is a cornerstone of our diet, five centuries ago the situation was completely different; the fear of being poisoned, the distrust of something entirely unknown, a taste and smell so different from European vegetables, the difficulty of incorporating it into the gastronomic context of the time.
Yet, despite all these barriers, curiosity won out, and the result, confirmed by history, was overwhelmingly positive. From that moment on, aided by the lively trade of the main cities along the Tyrrhenian coast and favorable climatic conditions, the tomato began to spread and be cultivated in Sardinia, Liguria, and eventually in the Po Valley. It was not a quick and painless process, and in fact, large-scale cultivation took hold more than two centuries later, when gastronomic experimentation found a place for the tomato in the cuisine of the time, managing to overcome popular skepticism and democratizing its use.
And so, this summary of the history of the tomato brings us to the 19th century, a period of its widespread diffusion in Italy and Europe, which begins in the last decade with the first Margherita pizza baked at the Royal Palace of Capodimonte in honor of the homonymous Queen of Italy, Margherita of Savoy.
It’s a long love story between Italians and the tomato, one that began with initial misunderstandings and prejudices, apparent insurmountable barriers, and compromises to be found, but at the same time, it is a success story that has made the product of a distant land an icon of national identity.
Like every story, the history of the tomato carries with it a lesson, a "take-home message" that opens a reflection and creates space for many questions.
In 1540, when the tomato arrived in Europe, it was a "novel food," just as synthetic meat, cricket flour, and many other foods developed with the goal of reducing the environmental impact of the food chain and simultaneously feeding a population that continues to grow by a billion every four years, are today.
Unlike in the past, however, contemporary society can rely on the tools of science to verify the safety of foods, as well as the benefits they may bring.
The scientific literature is rich with studies on the effects of thousands of molecules on humans, from individual compounds to entire macrocategories, allowing for the interpretation of chemical analysis results in terms of both safety and nutritional effects. Analytical chemistry, for its part, allows for the reliable identification of molecules, characterization of their structure, and measurement of their quantities even below a nanogram per kilogram of food.
Considering the "scientific arsenal" available, doubts and prejudices about novel foods should be drastically reduced, relegating concerns to objective matters such as taste or, possibly, ethics. Yet, paradoxically, this wealth of information does more to frighten than reassure, and often unfounded prejudices are exploited in favor of opportunistic speculators.
In a recent article titled "Cultured Meat Safety Research Priorities: Regulatory and Governmental Perspectives," published in the journal Foods, Ong and colleagues addressed the issue of synthetic meat safety both from a health protection standpoint and as a prerequisite for its integration into eating habits. The study highlights how the current regulatory framework is already adequate to cover this category of foods, which do not add additional risks; paradoxically, the absence of drugs typically used in intensive farming is already a significant improvement in food safety.
A similar argument applies to foods derived from insects, where the simplified supply chain (absence of antibiotics as in meat, and pesticides/herbicides as in plants) is a strength in terms of food safety (Derrien C. & Boccuni A., 2018). Insects, in fact, are only a novel food in the Western world, while they have already been part of the diet of various African and Asian populations.
Although in these countries the regulation on food safety is not as strict as in Europe, numerous scientific studies reported in the review by Lange & Nakamura titled "Edible Insects as Future Food: Chances and Challenges" have addressed the risks associated with the consumption of insects and their derivatives, identifying strong similarities with the typical contaminants found in plants, such as heavy metals and allergens. The latter are the area where knowledge is least complete and requires further progress.
A snapshot of the allergens in edible insects was provided by De Marchi in a recent review titled "Allergens from Edible Insects: Cross-reactivity and Effects of Processing," which analyzes both the risks related to their composition and their transformation into food, including cross-reactivity.
The resulting picture shows that, although many allergens and their mechanisms are known, knowledge is still limited and requires further dedicated studies. These studies have been increasing for years and are receiving intense attention from the scientific community, as evidenced by searching for "edible insects safety" in the ScienceDirect search engine (accessed December 6, 2024); the number of articles published with these keywords has risen from 60 in 2001 to 118 in 2011, then leaped to 1,339 in 2024, with 148 new papers already accepted for publication in volumes coming out in 2025.
So, should we really be afraid of eating novel food in today's state of knowledge? Isn't the awareness of knowing "the life, death, and miracles" of every single nanogram of our bite enough to make us feel safe?
Can't we realize that fear could deprive us of a huge opportunity? Because today's synthetic meat, for example, could be the tomato of centuries ago, and in a few decades, we may differentiate between a country that embraced the change and one that endured it, between generations who will live off the farsighted choices of their ancestors and generations held back by the narrow views of those who came before them. What would Italy be like if tomatoes had never arrived?
Without its cultivation, without the industries that process them, without most sauces, without lasagna, without pizza. It’s striking to think about, but we would be living in a country with a very different culture and economy. And it’s incredible that all of this stemmed from that first taste that overcame the fear and prejudices toward a red, sour, and exotic fruit brought from the other side of the world.
Today, the situation is different; science quiets the fear, and the cyclical repetition of history’s lessons surpasses prejudice. Perhaps it’s worth taking a small bite…
References
La storia del pomodoro – Museo del Pomodoro / Nuovi prodotti alimentari | EFSA / Ong K. et al., Foods (2023), 12(14), 2645; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods12142645 / Derrien C. & Boccuni A., Edible Insects in Sustainable Food Systems (2018) Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74011-9_30 / Lange K. & Nakamura Y., Journal of Future Foods, (2021), 1(1), 38-46; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfutfo.2021.10.001 / De Marchi L. et al. Current Allergy and Asthma Reports (2021), 21 (35), https://doi.org/10.1007/s11882-021-01012-z.
Maurizio Piergiovanni
Researcher at University of Parma
This blog post is related to
Food safety of traditional and novel foods
Promoting a safe food innovation
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Spoke leaderMaria De Angelis