February 1/Davis, Cal./States News Service -- Besides their appealing orange color and sweet flavor, there is another reason to give tangerine tomatoes a try this year. A one-month study led by U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists in California has provided new evidence to suggest that, ounce for ounce, these heirloom tomatoes might be a better source of a powerful antioxidant called lycopene than are familiar red tomatoes.
The difference lies in the forms of lycopene that the two tomato types provide, according to chemist Betty J. Burri, based at the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Western Human Nutrition Research Center in Davis, Calif. ARS is USDA's principal intramural scientific research agency.