Never noticed any problem but my best guess would be something in the particular bags you are using? Next best guess would be some bacteria in one of them - a bad spot - that grows worse as they thaw?

Dave

So it sounds like I'm alone with my stinky tomatoes? Oh no!
The smell is actually in there when they're right out of the freezer (if I stick my nose in the bag.) And the bags, when used for other things like beans or squash, don't have the smell. I get the same smell when I freeze tomato sauce that has cooked for an hour.

My next best guess: it's not a rotten smell, but it's just me interpreting it that way. (I'm someone who gags when neighbors have the perfumy bounce smell coming out of their dryer vent -- so it may well just be me!)

You've got the super nose. I understand, there are days that I'm super sensitive, and others not. I can't stand perfumes, no matter what day.

elisa_Z5, you are not alone.

It isn't because of anything bad most likely, I have noticed it also.

Is it kind of a musky smell? That is the only way that I can think of to describe what I smell.

As Family said, Quote " You've got the super nose. I understand, there are days that I'm super sensitive, and others not. I can't stand perfumes, no matter what day."

I watched an Italian cooking show on PBS years ago where the lady from De Medici Kitchens commented that Americans were crazy to give away all their surplus tomatoes in summer and then have to buy them in the winter as canned or fresh. Her answer was to freeze them!

I never had room in the freezer to do so until this year as we bought a 2nd chest freezer. I froze tomatoes all season long by putting them in "food Grade" ziplock freezer bags (not storage bags).

I tried making spaghetti sauce with some and noticed no odd smell. In fact they smelled quite nice cooking up. My wife and I were happy with the results but my children refused to eat the sauce after tasting it claiming that it had an odd flavor. Since it is the same sauce recipe I have used for years with either fresh or canned tomatoes, perhaps some people do have a better sense of smell/taste. I am perplexed if I will freeze tomatoes again or not. It sure was a lot easier than canning them.

I have never noticed any such smell or any issue whatsoever. No odd flavor, off taste, or smell at all.

Frozen or fresh tomatoes smell when I cook them. After they cool, or are mixed with other things and served hot, the smell is not there. After all these years I just ignore it because there doesn't seem to be a taste difference, just the smell when heating.

Any chance your freezer is not cold enough?

I just bought a small box of fresh organic cherry tomatoes and sniffed through the holes in the lid - and I noticed it too. It smells like decay but they look perfectly fresh and ripe. I don’t buy tomatoes very often and I’ve never sniffed them up close before so I can’t say if it’s normal. It doesn’t drift into the air, only if I really smell them up close.

We froze 14 pecks of tomatoes this year because we had to delay canning at the last minute. When we got to it there was an unpleasant smell coming from the thawed bags. The person in charge of canning day didn't want to use the tomato juice/water that remained in the bags once the tomatoes were removed so I took it to turn into soup. The smell of it reminded me of urine. I've added a few vegetables and garlic from the garden to see if it can be salvaged but I have concerns about the canned product we'll end up with too.