Is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable?

Both labels are correct, because they answer different questions. In botany a tomato is a fruit, since it grows from the ripened ovary of a flower and contains seeds. In the kitchen it is treated as a vegetable. The US Supreme Court took up the question in 1893 only because a tax law treated fruits and vegetables differently, and it held that for that law the tomato was a vegetable. [1] [2]

According to Snopes, citing Encyclopedia Britannica and Merriam-Webster, fruits are defined in part as the reproductive body of a seed plant. Tomatoes fit that description, and so do cucumbers, peppers and avocados. Many nutritionists and botanists therefore call the tomato a fruit. [1]

The culinary view rests on use rather than structure. Britannica, as quoted by Snopes, notes that many cultures serve vegetables in main dishes and sides, and keep sweet fruits for snacks and desserts. It says there is no hard-and-fast rule that designates a botanical fruit as a vegetable, but that tomatoes are generally not used in desserts and are closely related to fruit-vegetables such as eggplants and peppers, so calling them vegetables is not too counterintuitive. The USDA takes this line too, stating that for nutritional and culinary purposes these foods are considered vegetables. [1]

The case, Nix v. Hedden, was decided on May 10, 1893. John Nix & Co., an importer, had brought tomatoes from the West Indies to New York in 1886. The port collector, Edward Hedden, charged a 10 percent duty under the Tariff Act of 1883, which taxed vegetables but placed fruits on the free list. The importer sued to recover the duties, arguing that tomatoes were fruit. [3] [4]

At trial the importer's lawyers read dictionary definitions and called two witnesses with decades of experience selling fruit and vegetables. Both said the words had no special meaning in trade different from the dictionaries. The trial court directed a verdict for the collector, and the Supreme Court affirmed. [3]

Justice Gray, writing for the Court, accepted that botanically tomatoes are the fruit of a vine, like cucumbers, squashes, beans and peas. But he held that, with no special trade meaning, the words must carry their ordinary meaning. In common language, he wrote, these are all vegetables, grown in kitchen gardens and usually served at dinner with or after the soup, fish or meats, and not as dessert, as fruits generally are. He compared the case to an earlier ruling that beans, though seeds in botany, are not seeds in commerce or common speech. [3]

The ruling was narrow. NPR describes it as a decision under customs law, in which the justices separated science from everyday life. It did not change the botanical definition. The Court said dictionaries were aids to its memory and understanding, not evidence, and noted that dictionary definitions of fruit did not show that tomatoes were fruit in common speech. [4] [3]