Tesco is stocking Dutch-grown Intense round tomatoes grown from seed bred by Dutch seed house Nunhems.
The revolutionary tomato, which won the prestigious Fruit Logistica Innovation Award in 2008, is billed as a sandwich tomato as it retains its juice after cutting.
In February, freshinfo revealed that a major deal was on the cards with a UK retailer and this week Tesco began stocking the fruit in 200 stores, supplied by APS Salads in Cheshire.
The retailer’s tomato buyer, Emma Pettitt, said: “The arrival of the non-leaking tomato may well be heralded by sarnie fans as the best thing to hit the sandwich world since sliced bread.
“As one of the most universally used sandwich ingredients, the problem is one that affects millions of people every day in the UK.
“Tomatoes are one of the UK’s most loved fresh produce items but, unfortunately, their juiciness sometimes means that by lunchtime our lovely salad sarnie resembles a piece of wet cardboard. From now on, that will be a thing of the past.”
Nunhems’ breeding programme began some 20 years ago and has involved more than 100 varieties to come up with a fruit that held its form and consistency.
The non-leaking tomatoes were grown in the Netherlands and are part of a long-term tomato seed breeding programme that began in 1986.
After trials using more than 100 varieties, the breakthrough came last year when, through natural breeding methods, the breeder developed one that held its shape when sliced, baked or diced.
Tests also showed that when making a sandwich from a standard tomato, eight per cent of its weight was lost after slicing and a further 12 per cent of the moisture seeped into the bread only an hour later.
The performance of Intense is significantly better - with only one per cent moisture loss on slicing and three per cent lost into the bread in an hour. Pettitt said: “The new tomato is also economical, as tests have shown that you need around 30 per cent less than regular varieties when making a sauce.”
Tesco began offering the fruit on Monday this week in punnets of four for 99p.
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