Tomatoes are evil. Why, they even made a film about it!

On the bright side, they're damned tasty!

Sadly, this is based off of something that keeps happening to me in real life at my job. Boy, would they explode, and get all over my face, shirt, up the sleeves... in my ear. Even bits of 'em would hit the ceiling.

Oh dear. I feel your pain. I like eating tomatoes, but I hate trying to cut them. Every time I try, there's always at least one or two that squirt all over me no matter how careful I am in trying to cut into them. I can only imagine the horrible mess it must make trying to do that for a whole shift!

Your knives are not sharp enough. Tomatos, especially if you get some of the thinner skinned (and tastier) varieties need a razor sharp knife and careful technique. Also take care not to add any of your own red stuff to the product.

Take one of your medium-sized slicing knives and take the time to do a really really good sharpening job on it. It should pass the hanging paper test with ease. Then keep that knife separate for just things like this. Touch it up with a sharpening steel before each use and clean it well afterwards, as tomato juice is acidic.

We usually don't cut tomatoes using a knife, unless we are out towards the end of the day. Normally, I would use a tomato slicer (the type with the ram). However, ours didn't quite get made correctly, so there is a ton of friction near the blades (tried multiple tricks to fix that, but no joy). As a result, some of the tomatoes would hit, more or less stop, and explode. And yes, it was a brand new unit with very sharp blades.

At this point, I just use the meat slicer.

And it really doesn't help that my boss doesn't really check the tomatoes when he buys them. As a result, I end having to work with some that are starting to over rippen.

Those tomato slicers with the ram work best with the cardboard flavored thick skin Tomatos that are common in the usa nowadays. And once they are.fully ripe, they are too soft to easily slice with that kind of slicer. I have no further suggestions for you other than to wear big aprons.

Yeah, this sums up those evil little jerks quite well.

I think things will get better once I leave that job. And move out of the area.

So your not a fan of an old horror flick, 'Attack of the Killer Tomatoes'?

Honestly, I have never seen it. Heard of it, but that's about it.

It's a horrible movie. But it does seem to fit your situation.

'AAAATTACK of the killer Tomatoes!' God that was hilarious

there was a cartoon series made from it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_PrRd-Y56c

https://youtu.be/b3uIKzgcDxo

At least they don't just catch on fire. That is the worst.

Would you rather they caught on fire, then exploded, and stuck yo you like Napalm? I'd find that even worse than normal.

Ah, man, poor BrooklynX ... Bet it looks like a Tarantino when you finally do get the little suckers.

"Geez... soon kids won't have to worry about eating their brussels sprouts. Cause, the brussle sprouts will be eating them!"