M&S to sell ‘first’ sweet green tomato

Grower Andy Roe has created “the perfect tasting green tomato”, which is technically sweeter than the popular Piccolini variety, the retailer said.

The tomato, named the Sweet Green, has sugar levels of up to 12 on the Brix scale, a scientific measure developed to assess the quality and sweetness of fruit and vegetables, compared with the Piccolini’s level of about eight to nine.

The tomato, originally discovered in Israel, will go on sale this week at selected stores but M&S said it hopes to grow them in larger volumes to sell nationwide from next year.

M&S said it had seen a growing customer trend towards wanting increasingly sweet tomatoes, with the best sellers all being sweet cherry varieties.

M&S tomato technologist Jo Oliver said: “We’re really excited to be bringing our customers the first ever sweet green tomato. We’ve been working closely with our growers to create a stunning green tomato with a perfect balance of acidity and sweetness, that we are sure customers will love.

“Not only do they look great, but they taste fantastic and will brighten up any salad bowl as well as being ideal for snacking.”

Sweet Green tomatoes will be available for £1 for 100g.