The produce aisle is changing. You’ve noticed this, I’m sure. It is now full of superstar fruits and vegetables: The Honeycrisp apple, The Cotton Candy grape, The Cuties mandarin orange. They stand out. They cost more. They have branding and sometimes trademarks and patent-ish kinds of protections.
And now – it’s happening in the tomato bin too! Where once there were just plain old cherry or grape tomatoes, now there are Sugar Bombs, and Flavor Bombs, and Lolli Bombs and Sprinkles.
Today, we are partnering up with Dan Pashman – host of
The Sporkful food podcast – and heading to New Jersey where we hope to taste an up-and-coming competitor: Rutgers University's Scarlet Sunrise grape tomato. We talk to the inventors to understand
why this explosion in branded fruits and veggies has happened and how you go about
making a new piece of produce.
Plus, we talk to Cornell agricultural economist Miguel Gomez about whether or not the fruits and veggies spread in our produce aisle are, perhaps, reaching the point of market saturation.
Read: Follow: Support public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org.This episode was hosted by Kenny Malone and Dan Pashman. It was produced by James Sneed and edited by Keith Romer. It was fact-checked by Sierra Juarez and engineered by Cena Loffredo & Jimmy Keeley. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money
’s executive producer.Correction, Aug. 31, 2026: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said that the University of Washington developed the Cosmic Crisp apple. It was Washington State University.See
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