121.87 × 10−3 ± 29.63 × 10−3 kg; range: 158.77 × 10−3 kg) or low EC (mean: 121.79 × 10−3 ± 35.39 × 10−3 kg; range: 186.05 × 10−3 kg) tomatoes. As shown in Fig. 1c, the mean external color (a*) (±standard deviation) (28.13 ± 3.12) of the high EC tomatoes was greater than that of the medium EC (25.02 ± 3.32) or low EC (25.64 ± 3.66) tomatoes. This reflected the observation that the high EC fruit (n = 94) had a higher percentage of redder fruit, with 37% ‘over-ripe’, 40% ‘table-ripe’ and 22% ‘under-ripe’, while the low EC fruit (n = 100) had a lower percentage of redder fruit, with 16% ‘over-ripe’, 33% ‘table-ripe’ and 51% ‘under-ripe’.