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In the US tomato is a vegetable

Ildly browsing through the Wiki (I was reading about scoville scale) I happened upon this article.

Nix v. Hedden, 148 U.S. 308 (1893)[1], was a case in which the United States Supreme Court addressed whether a tomato was classified as a fruit or a vegetable and decided it was a vegetable. The Tariff Act of March 3, 1883 required a tax to be paid on imported vegetables, but not fruit. The case was filed as an action by John Nix, John W. Nix, George W. Nix, and Frank W. Nix against Edward L. Hedden, Collector of the Port of New York, to recover back duties paid under protest. Botanically, a tomato is a fruit because it is a seed-bearing structure growing from the flowering part of a plant. The court, however, unanimously ruled in favor of the defendant, that the Tariff Act used the ordinary meaning of the words "fruit" and "vegetable" – where a tomato is classified as a vegetable – not the technical botanical meaning.

Comments

Eric said…
Well, yeah, I mean it stands to reason that a tomato is a vegetable since ketchup is a vegetable and ketchup is made from tomatoes.
But it was never implemented. Safer to say, from botanical pov that it's berry spread. Add sugar and preservatives and you can put it in a Smucker's bottle and spread over your french toast.

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