A vegetable is a plant or that part of a plant which is edible, and does not necessarily have a role in the plant's reproductive cycle.

A fruit is the mature ovary of a seed plant, usually developed from a flower.

Tomatoes have been designated the state vegetable of New Jersey .

It’s a fruit, botanically, and a vegetable according to the Supreme Court of New York of 1893.
From the botanical point of view, fruits consist of germ cells of plants. But conversely, in 2009, the state of Ohio passed a law making the tomato the state’s official fruit .

Tomatoes are often paired with savory foods like meats, vegetables, and cheeses, and are used in pasta dishes, soups, stews, sauces, and more.

Vegetables, on the other hand, consist of different plant parts, such as stems, leaves or roots. While tomatoes can be incorporated into desserts (think tomato …

Are tomatoes a fruit or a vegetable? Despite the decision made by the Supreme Court, the debate on whether a tomato is a fruit or vegetable continues. In Arkansas, it’s both the state fruit and vegetable. A tomato isn't sweet like an apple, but the definition doesn't require it to be in order to qualify as a fruit.



The reason being, tomatoes are usually treated like vegetables in cooking. Really, the answer comes down to who you ask. A botanist would say that it is a fruit, because it matches the botany definition of fruit (seed-bearing structure) A chef would say that it is a vegetable, because it matches the culinary definition of vegetable (flavor profile, cooking properties) The same word comes to …

A chef would say that fruits are sweet and fleshy, eaten as a snack or dessert, while vegetables are savory and lower in fructose, eaten as sides or part of a main dish. Is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable? The seed element is the reason why tomatoes are technically considered a fruit. The tomato is the state fruit of Tennessee and the state vegetable in New Jersey. Tomatoes are part of the family of the fruit vegetables. Well, botanically-speaking, a fruit is a ripened flower ovary, which contains seeds. We’ll all just have to agree to disagree, I guess.

So the answer whether a tomato is a fruit or a vegetable is not very simple.


So is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable? Fruits have seeds so they further the reproductive cycle. The tomato plant is a seed plant—it bears seeds—and the tomato that grows from it is an edible reproductive body; the seeds within the tomato are the means by which the tomato plant reproduces.