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Tomato grading

Erik Wilson, the agricultural expert at Olam Tomato Processors (who works with Muir Glen to harvest and process each year’s crop), teaches us how to evaluate a tomato for ripeness.

“Color, size, sugar level, and peel-ability are all important,” he says. If you want to get even more technical, the pH level of raw tomatoes should be around 4.2 to 4.3. A tomato’s pH goes up as it ripens.