A 17-year-old scientist is involved in creating a tomato which has the flavour of a beef burger and might thus provide a new method of combining the taste of meat with the nutritional advantages of plants. Gabriella Rothberg, who founded Impossible Vines, is altering the genes of tomato plants so that they will produce heme, a molecule containing iron that is linked to the taste of meat.
She told Miami New Times that her experiment is intended to get tomatoes to taste more like beef while at the same time providing nutritious iron. If the project is successful, it could lead to new possibilities regarding plant-based foods and nutrition, especially for communities in which meat is less accessible.
