What determines if a plant is a fruit or a vegetable?
A quick, bullet-point exploration of criteria that defines whether a plant should be called a fruit or a vegetable.
Fruits and vegetables are classified based on two criteria: Botanical (where they come from & what they consist of) and Culinary (how they taste).
Botanically, a fruit develops from the flower of a plant, while the other parts of the plant are categorised as vegetables.
Fruits contain seeds, while vegetables could have roots, stems and leaves.
From a culinary standpoint, fruits usually have a sweet or tart (sharp, acidic) flavour and are used mainly in desserts, snacks or juices.
Vegetables have a savoury (spicy and salty) taste and are usually eaten as a side dish or main course.
Because of these definitions, some plants continue to be at the centre of a debate on whether they are fruits or vegetables.
E.g., bell peppers, eggplants, avocados and tomatoes are botanically fruits, but culinarily, vegetables.
This debate led to a court case Nix Vs Hedden in 1893 when John Nix filed a lawsuit against the tax collector Edward Hedden for collecting taxes on tomatoes.
As per the Tariff Act of 1883, imported fruits were not taxable in the US, while imported vegetables were taxable.
Nix appealed that since tomatoes were botanically fruits, they shouldn’t be taxed.
The court ruled that the tomatoes should be taxed as vegetables as per the kitchen definitions of fruit and vegetable and not how they were technically defined.
Image courtesy of Lukas through Pexels
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