Bramley 's tomatoes are so red because they contain twice as much lycopene , the pigment that makes tomatoes red as normal. "Normal tomatoes usually have paler portions inside ,buf these one have even ,red pigmentation throughout ," he says.
They also contain abnormally high level of B -carotene , the compound that makes carrots bright orange. Both are carotenoids, a group of compounds found widely in fruit and vegetables. "If we can establish that higher levels of carotenoinds in the diet are beneficial, we are developing technology to modify common fruit and vegetables so that they produce more ," he says.