Comparative storage conditions on the post-harvest losses and quality of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) fruits

Abstract

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is a member of the Solanaceae family, and its fruit is perishable with low shelf life due to postharvest losses, which depend on the variety, management and storage practices. Temperature also influences post-harvest life of tomato and rate of biological processes including ripening, softening, flavour, aroma, and weight loss. The optimum temperature influencing good quality of tomato fruit, enhancing shelf life and minimizing post-harvest losses is inadequately determined. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine the effect of optimal storage temperature on quality and marketability parameters of tomato fruits. The experiment was carried out in the laboratory of post-harvest at Sokoine University Agriculture using Completely Randomized Design (CRD) arrangement of treatments replicated three times. The experiment had two treatments which include tomato fruits stored at Ambient (26±1°C) and Cool Bolt (16±1°C). The result showed that the highest weight loss (7.71%) was for Ambient (26±1°C), while the least loss (3.01%) was recorded for tomato fruits stored in Cool Bolt (16±1°C). Tomato fruits showed significant increase in hue, chlorophyll degradation and weight and firmness loss. The rate of reduction in hue angle of fruits stored at ambient (26±1°C) was low compared to that of the fruits stored at Cool Bolt (16±1°C). The shelf life of the fruits significantly increased (p<0.001) with decreasing storage temperature. Cold storage (Cold Bot) further, was able to maintain marketability value by 98.9% compared to 60.1% of ambient storage. However, it has shown no influence on Titratable Acid (TA) and Total Soluble Solids/Titratable Acid (TSS/TA) ratio. Therefore, Cold Bolt (16±1°C) storage has greater influence in maintenance of physiochemical quality parameters of tomato fruits. The study concludes that Cool Bot treatment was able to preserve tomato color for longer periods, than ambient storage.