Quality of mini tomatoes harvested at two maturity stages and kept chilled in three packages

Abstract

The economic importance of small tomato fruits has been increased considerably due to the significant levels of lycopene and sugars. However, to achieve these compounds, the harvest is limited to a ripening stage demanded by consumers, which could reduce this marked period. Harvesting at an early stage and use of conservation techniques are desirable to amplify the marketing period. The aim of this study was to evaluate the quality of small tomato fruits, Sweet Grape cultivar, harvested at two stages of ripening (light red and red), kept in three types of package (perforated PET, PEBD 30 μ and Vegetal Pack 18 μ) at a temperature of 20±1ºC and a relative humidity (RH) of 85±5% during 20 days. During this period, gas composition inside the packaging (O 2 , CO 2 and ethylene), peel color, fresh mass loss, soluble solids content (SS), titratable acidity (TA), SS/TA and ascorbic acid levels were evaluated every 5 days. The lycopene content was determined at the beginning and the end of conservation. The experimental design was completely randomized in a split plot with four replications. Mass loss, peel color and gas composition were affected by both stage of harvest and package. The total SS/TA increased 4.74 during the conservation for two stages, regardless of package. The light red fruits reached after 20 days of conservation, mean levels of lycopene of 16.47 mg 100 g -1 and SS/TA of 18.43; on the other hand the red fruits achieved 15.30 mg 100 g -1 of lycopene and 16.80 of SS/TA. There was a mean increase of 8.4 mg 100 g -1 of lycopene in light red fruits, while in red fruits, the increase was 0.9 mg 100 g -1 . The PEDB film was the best to maintain the fresh mass and peel color, therefore it was indicated for the maintenance of these attributes. The Vegetal Pack film showed no advantage in relation to the PET perforated packaging.

Effects of indirect air cooling combined with direct evaporative cooling on the quality of stored tomato fruit

“…Five sampled stored tomatoes from each treatment were weighed using a Teraoka DIGI SM 300 scale at the start of the experiment and on 7-day intervals at days 7, 14, 21, and 28. PWL was calculated as cumulative percentage weight loss based on the initial tomato sample weight (before storage) and loss in weight recorded at the time of sampling during storage (Caron, Tessmer, Mello, & Jacomino, 2013). The equation by Islam and Morimoto (2016) computed the percentage differential weight loss for each sample per each interval as percentage weight loss of the initial weight.…”

Effect of infield handling conditions and time to pre-cooling on the shelf-life and quality of tomatoes

“…Readings were taken at an observer angle of 2º after standardizing the instrument with a white tile (Y=93.8, X=0.3030, y=0.3191). The L* a* b* and h values were reported for each reading (CARON et al, 2013).…”

“…The weight loss of each tomato fruit sample was measured by labelling and weighing two batches of three fruits from each replicate on each sampling day. This procedure followed the method described by Caron et al (2013).…”

<b>Trough and pot crop systems with leaching recirculation and defoliation levels for mini tomatoes

“…Despite producing small fruits, mini tomato plants are highly productive, reaching yields of up to 22 kg plant -1 (Mello, 2016) in crop cycles of up to one year. In addition to high fruit yield per square metre, this specialty tomato reaches high prices, being at least 20% higher than conventional tomatoes (Caron, Tessmer, Mello, & Jacomino, 2013).…”