Brightening up your salad is the least of this fruit's abilities. This purple variety has been created by scientists to battle cancer and heart disease by adding the same class of health-promoting pigments found in blueberries, blackberries and cranberries - hence the colour.

The results have been astonishing so far. After feeding cancer suffering rats this GM tomato, their life expectancy increased from 142 days to 182.

The purple tomato was created by scientists in Norwich who inserted two genes from the snapdragon plant, known for regulating the production of anthocyanin pigments which are thought to prevent against cancers, cardiovascular diseases and degenerative illnesses.