This brings out the fruit's natural orange coloring better. Your body takes in beta-carotene and turns it into vitamin A, an essential nutrient that helps your bones and teeth grow strong and healthy. Beta-carotene is especially important in helping you to see clearly. Regular red tomatoes have beta-carotene, but in such small amounts that you can't see the orange. Stommel's new orange tomatoes have almost 35 to 40 times more vitamin A than the usual red tomato.
Some people use food dyes to color eggs or other foods.
But don't worry. The United States is number two in the world for producing fresh and processed tomatoes, with Florida and California leading the way. It may be a while before you can buy Stommel's orange tomatoes at your own grocery store. For now, they will be used to add more nutritional punch to products like tomato paste, juices and sauces. But you never know.