IQG Foods produces canned cherry tomatoes in Egypt, whole small-fruit tomatoes packed in their own juice, in tin at 400 g and 800 g. The fruit goes into the can whole and unpeeled, with the skin left on to hold the shape. Two ingredients on the label and no salt. Cherry tomatoes carry more natural sugar than round varieties, which is why a sauce made from them needs less correction.

A cherry tomato is not a smaller version of a round tomato. It is a different fruit with a different balance, and the difference shows in the numbers. Sugars run at 3.4 g per 100 g against 2.9 in a peeled round tomato, and the skin-to-flesh ratio is higher.

That extra sweetness changes what happens in the pan. A sauce built on cherry tomatoes reaches balance without added sugar, which matters to any manufacturer trying to keep a clean label. The acidity is there too, so it reads as bright rather than flat.

The skin is left on deliberately. It holds each fruit together through the fill and through cooking, so the tomato bursts rather than dissolves. On a plate that means visible whole fruit; in a jar of ready sauce it means texture that survives pasteurisation.