Evaluation of engineering properties for waste control of tomato during harvesting and postharvesting

Abstract

In Iran, more than 30% of agricultural products turn into waste at different stages from harvesting to consumption. Thus, main factors for performing of this present study are including of: (a) the importance of tomato as an agricultural product and (b) lack of information about reducing waste during tomato processing. In this study, some physical, nutritional, mechanical, and hydrodynamic properties of tomato were measured under standard conditions. Physical properties included the length, width, thickness, mean diameter (geometric and arithmetic), mass, volume, density, sphericity, surface area, and aspect ratio. Also, nutritional properties, moisture, dry matter, pH, total soluble solid (TSS), and titration acidity (TA) of tomato were evaluated. The mechanical properties of tomato (compression and shear) were measured using Instron instrument. The hydrodynamic properties were measured with water in transportation, separation, and sorting of tomatoes. The physical properties were including of length, width, thickness, mass, volume, and geometric and arithmetic mean diameters showed a direct relationship with the size of tomatoes. Also, volumetric mass (density) had an inverse relation with tomato size. Yield point and shear force were obtained 51.27 and 22.20 N, respectively. The nutritional properties such as pH value, TSS, and TA were equal to 4.22, 22.23 ο Brix, and 2%, respectively. The hydrodynamic properties of tomatoes such as the terminal velocity, the tomatoes' rise time in the water column, the buoyancy force, and the drag force were obtained to be equal to 0.05 m/s, 10.11 S, 0.52 N, and 0.17 N, respectively.

Assessment of kinetics, effective moisture diffusivity, specific energy consumption, shrinkage, and color in the pistachio kernel drying process in microwave drying with ultrasonic pretreatment

“…Then, pistachio kernels were taken out of their skin without any breaks. To determine the initial MC of the pistachios, 20 g samples was then placed in an oven (Memmert UNE 500 model) with a temperature of 105 ± 1°C for 24 hr and dried there (Jahanbakhshi, Rasooli Sharabiani, Heidarbeigi, Kaveh, & Taghinezhad, 2019a). The samples were weighed using a digital scale (USA, GF600 model with a precision of 0.01 g) before and after being placed in the oven.…”

Effects of biofertilizers and iron nano‐oxide on maize yield and physiological properties under optimal irrigation and drought stress conditions

“…The growing world's population is constantly in need of food production, and agriculture plays a key role in this production (Eliaspour, Seyed Sharifi, & Shirkhani, 2020; Jahanbakhshi & Salehi, 2019; Jahanbakhshi, Abbaspour‐Gilandeh, & Gundoshmian, 2018; Jahanbakhshi, Yeganeh, & Shahgoli, 2019c; Momeny, Jahanbakhshi, Jafarnezhad, & Zhang, 2020). Maize is considered as one of the most important crops with a variety of uses such as the human and animal food, fodder, and industrial applications.…”

Assessment of physical, mechanical, and hydrodynamic properties in reducing postharvest losses of cantaloupe (Cucumis melo var. Cantaloupensis)

“…Also, the data obtained about the hydrodynamic properties of cantaloupe can be used in the transfer, separation, and sorting through water in order to reduce processing costs and product waste. In similar studies, researchers reported that parameters such as the buoyance force and drag force can be used in modeling terminal velocity and the time length for the fruit to move up or down in the fluid (Dadashi et al, ; Jahanbakhshi et al, ; Moradi et al, ; Tarighi, Mohtasebi, Heydari, & Abasghazvini, ).…”

“…So, by putting a sui separator in place, fruits can be sorted. Terminal velocity of fruits plays an important role in designing transfer equipment and different types of product cleaning systems (Jahanbakhshi, Rasooli Sharabiani, Heidarbeigi, Kaveh, & Taghinezhad, ; Kheiralipour et al, ). Some studies on this topic have measured terminal velocities for pomegranate (Dadashi et al, ), apple (Kheiralipour et al, ), apricot (Mirzaee et al, ) and tomato (Garavand, Rafiee, Keyhani, & Mirzaee, ).…”