Can You Eat A Tomato With Seeds Sprouting Inside?
To put it simply, you can eat tomatoes with sprouting seeds. It is completely safe to do so, and wouldn’t harm your health in any way. It should be kept in mind that as long as the tomatoes are not showing any signs of rotting or are intact, you can eat them and their sprout seeds too.
The seeds in the tomato A tomato is the seeds within, which typically germinate once the tomato has decomposed, then the seeds can germinate. A tomato is, in a biological sense, a fruit, because it has seeds on the inside, and these seeds sprout.
A tomato fruit allows for a process known as vivipary, because the tomatoes seeds are not drying out in a humid environment within the fruit. Vivipary occurs when natural hormones are exhausted or depleted, which allows seeds to grow in the moist environment within the fruit. Sprouting may occur when the natural defenses that keep seeds dormant within fruit begin to wear off.
Exposure to hot temperatures or wet conditions, a lack of potassium, or overfertilization with nitrogen, all may trigger sprouting or germination. Some causes of seed sprouting in tomatoes are prolonged cold storage in temperatures lower than 55 degrees, being too late, having low potassium, nitrogen overfertilization, and, again, being too late, which is a dominant cause of vivipary. Some causes of seeds sprouting within a tomato fruit are caused by long storage in cool temperatures below 55 degrees F.
Assuming there is nothing else wrong with tomatoes specifically, having sprouting seeds inside a fruit such as tomatoes or peppers is not harmful. Tomatoes, especially, can appear to look really weird, as a young plant will stick out of the walls of the fruit and keep growing out of the fruit. Finding black, brown, or seedlings with dark colors inside of a healthy tomato fruit is not too unusual.
While the natural color of seeds inside a healthy, ripe tomato of the usual varieties is a greenish yellow, there are times you will notice darker seeds when slicing up your fruit. Most often, when you find darker seeds inside of a tomato with no signs of disease, that means that the fruit is overripe. Below are the most common reasons why some seeds may be turning dark inside the tomato, even if the fruit looks perfectly healthy.
As I explained in this article, the causes for this condition may vary, and having just a few dark seeds does not necessarily mean the tomato is unusable. There are a couple reasons why it might occur, but most importantly, tomatoes that do sprout seeds can safely be eaten.
Probably these seeds just did not get enough nutrients to develop into a healthy seed, or they were young when a perfectly healthy tomato stopped growing. This could be the case for tomatoes you bought in the past, or for apples, pears, or peaches that had seeds sown within.
| Types | Effects |
| Tomato Sprouts | Although it’s unlikely that eating tomato sprouts can make you sick, avoiding them is still advisable. |
| Tomato Leaves | You can eat tomato leaves as they’re not only edible but also full of flavors and fragrant. |
| Tomato Microgreens | Tomato microgreens contain high level of alkaloids such as solanine, and glycoalkaloid poison which are not safe for humans to to consume. |
| Tomato Fruits | Tomato fruits contain high levels of humidity, creating an appropriate environment for the sprouting process to begin. |
Tomato seeds are allowed to sprout only in conditions that are conducive for growing tomatoes; for example, seeds will sprout in the spring, but not during winter. Usually, a gel surrounding a tomato seed prevents any sprouting when an uncorrupted tomato is whole, or even after the tomato has fallen to the ground and decomposed.
Even if you do not cut open the fruit, the sprouts will work their way from inside the fruit through the skin. The term vividipary means to give birth alive, and even if the tomatoes are not cut, the sprouts will come out of the fruit and stick through the skin. If left unchecked, vivipary sprouts that germinate in tomatoes may end up penetrating the tomatoes skin, and new plants may begin forming directly on the vine or kitchen counter.
The vivipary breaks off of its seeds and looks for nutrients in the humid tomato environment. The vivipary is able to escape from the seed and search the tomatos nutritious, moist environment for nourishment, which it finds in the environment of the tomato. The vivipary, or shoot, avoids the seeds inside the fruit and seeks nourishment in the hybrid plants nutrient-rich and moist environment.
If you want to learn about Are Mushrooms Safe To Eat During Pregnancy then you can read this article.
If the seeds in the fruit are from a hybrid plant, they are sown to the flower by a tomato plant that has genes that differ from those in the parent plant. The tomato would not be a clone of the mother plant, as the new plants shoots would have grown from a seed which would have had to be sprayed with pollen from a different tomato blossom, which would introduce new parents genes to the seeds, which would have produced a new plant.
That, and because tomato fruits contain high levels of humidity, creating an appropriate environment for the sprouting process to begin. When tomatoes are super-ripe, or if any other environmental factors force tomatoes seeds out of their dormancy prematurely, the interior of a tomato fruit becomes a perfect warm, moist little greenhouse for sprouting seeds.
If you want to learn about Can Vegans Eat Fish Sauce then you can read this article.
When the fruits, such as tomatoes, are ripe, hormones inhibiting seed germination are present, including abscisic acid (ABA). When abscisic acid, the naturally occurring hormone, is reduced in a tomatoes ripeness, mature seeds may fail to set dormant and fail to sprout.
A ripening tomato is safe to eat when no spots, fuzzies, or stringy tissue are visible on the surface of the fruit. All sprouted tomatoes are safe to eat if you do not notice any other things, such as fuzz, spots, or spongy tissues. Some people have gotten sick after eating sprouted tomatoes that are too mature; so, be careful about eating those tomatoes.
This is a controversial theory; some people consider sprouting tomatoes taste acceptable. If the tomato does not produce an off-putting odor or taste, then in most cases, it is safe to eat the fruit. It would take an enormous amount of tomatoes sprouts, leaves, and stems to produce a toxic dose for humans; eating just one or two is unlikely to result in any sort of health problem.
It is only when large numbers of humans consume tomato sprouts, leaves and stems that toxic dosages may be administered; eating just one or two sprouts, leaves or stems is not likely to do any harm. If we wish to remove tomato seeds from tomatoes that have seeds in them, we can simply cut the tomatoes in half, scoop the seeds out with our fingers, and thoroughly wash the tomatoes. The resulting plants produced from seeds from tomatoes purchased from the grocery store will be at different stages of maturity and quality. Usually, when examined closely, these stringy, curly shapes will indeed appear to be seeds germinating within the fruit, ripening the tomatoes.
How toxic are tomato sprouts?
Although it’s unlikely that eating tomato sprouts can make you sick, avoiding them is still advisable. Tomato seeds that have been planted or tomatoes that have decomposed and discharged their seeds typically produce tomato sprouts. However, it is not unusual to find tomato sprouts developing inside a whole tomato.
Can you eat tomato leaves?
You can eat tomato leaves as they’re not only edible but also full of flavors and fragrant. The leaves of tomato can be cooked in the same way as other green veggies like Kale, and Cabbage. However, it contains alkaloids such as tomatine and solanine to which some people are sensitive.
Can you eat tomato microgreens?
Tomato microgreens contain high level of alkaloids such as solanine, and glycoalkaloid poison which are not safe for humans to to consume. At high levels these alkaloids can be highly toxic for the humans. To avoid side effects, it’s best to avoid eating microgreens of tomato, eggplant, pepper, and potato.