UglyRipe
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
UglyRipeTM is a brand (not variety) of tomato named for its unusual appearance. It was developed by the Procacci Brothers Sales Corporation and is sold under its Santa Sweets brand. The tomato has creases and folds around its exterior like many old varieties. Since the late 1800s and the advent of the commercial tomato industry, tomatoes have been bred to be uniformly round with thick, smooth skin.
In mid-2006 the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) accepted public comment regarding the amendment of the Federal Marketing Order to exempt the UglyRipeTM from its requirements (http://www.ams.usda.gov/fv/modockets/966/comments.htm). On January 17, 2007, the USDA published an exemption for UglyRipesTM from the shape requirements for tomatoes shipped out of Florida's main tomato-growing region from mid-October to mid-June. The change requires that the UglyRipeTM follow a new identity-preservation program that uses unique genetic identifiers of produce to assure that it is the product claimed by its grower. In this case, the program would ensure that other misshapen tomatoes do not make it into distribution.
[edit] External links
- www.santasweets.com
- www.hgtv.com
- www.floridafarmers.org
- www.usatoday.com
- www.foxnews.com
- www.power-produce.com/UglyRipe.html Images of UglyRipeTM tomatoes
- The Philadelphia Inquirer
