CHANGES IN pH, TITRATABLE ACIDITY, AND SOLUBLE SOLIDS OF PROCESSING TOMATO VARIETIES IN RELATION TO FRUITS STORAGE UNTIL PROCESSING

Characteristics of 10 processing tomato cultivars grown hydroponically for the NASA Advanced Life Support (ALS) Program

“…The pH levels of all cultivars were very close (4.21-4.32), and similar to the ones reported by investigators such as Giordano et al (1994), Koutsos et al (1994), Pagliarini and Ratti (1999) and . Although the ANOVA found the differences statistically significant (Table 3), they were close to the sensitivity of the usual instruments.…”

“…This explains the quite large number of studies aiming to evaluate and improve the quality of processing tomatoes. However, in these studies the quality evaluation of processing tomatoes was typically performed using only a few quality attributes with significance for food processors, most frequently pH, acidity, total and soluble solids, and color indexes (Stamova et al, 1994;Giordano et al, 1994;Koutsos et al, 1994). A notably different situation is the study done by Porretta (1994), who compared the quality of commercial ''traditional'' and ''organic'' tomato products using multivariate statistical analysis, so an extensive number of parameters (including amino acids, carbohydrates, pectins, etc.)…”

Influence of On- and Off-Vine Storage on pH and Titratable Acidity of Processing Tomato Cultivars

“…This means that if during the peak of the tomato harvest season the delivery to the cannery is delayed, for 'Rio ~r a n d e ' it is better to remain unharvested than harvested awaiting delivery, whereas it makes no difference for 'Campbell-38.' Koutsos et al (1994) reported that for 'Rio ~r a n d e ' the pH increase in paste was due to the delay in delivering the harvested fruit to the canneries in Greece in 1989.…”

“…A low TA corresponds to a high pH value (Koutsos et al, 1994;Lower and Thomson, 1967b;Scott and Walls, 1947), but for each cultivar a given TA contributes to a different pH. Picha and Hall (1982) found it difficult to explain the lack of association between pH and increasing titratable acidity during the fall, when the application rate of potassium increased.…”

“…Under such conditions, either harvesting is delayed or the harvested fruit remains undelivered. Then problems associated with pH and TA occur (Hanna, 1961;Koutsos et al, 1994). Therefore, it is important to know which cultivars are most susceptible to these conditions regarding pH and TA.…”