Effect of heat treatment with biopreparation on the quality of tomato fruit during storage

Abstract

Tomato fruits are characterized by a high content of biologically active substances, which makes them an irreplaceable component of nutrition. However, tomatoes are perishable products and require additional measures to extend storage. One of the most problematic areas is the limited use of synthetic chemicals for processing fruit prior to storage. An alternative to them are natural exogenous preparations with antioxidant and disinfectant effects, which are environmentally friendly. However, the treatment of fruits with natural substances does not have sufficient efficiency in comparison with synthetic ones, which requires a combination with other post-harvest measures to increase cold stress. The object of research is the process of storing tomato fruits using heat treatment with a biological product. Numerous studies indicate the feasibility of using the processing of fruits with biological products to extend their storage duration. Standardized preparations based on bee products are of great interest. The research carried out in this work is aimed at extending the shelf life of tomato fruits while maintaining their quality by heat treatment of tomatoes with a solution of a biological product (tincture of the biomass of the larvae of the greater wax moth) before storage. In the course of the study, it was found that such treatment prolongs the shelf life of blank tomatoes up to 50 days, which is 40 % longer compared to the control. It has been proven that fruits treated with a biological product demonstrate a low level of metabolic processes. This is due to the fact that the proposed treatment slows down the rate of accumulation and degradation of sugars and organic acids. In particular, in fruits treated with a biological product, the sugar content is 8.8–10.6 % higher than in the control. The rate of decrease in the level of titratable acidity in the variants treated with the biological product is 15–19 % slower than in the control. The above results indicate the effectiveness of the use of a biological product for storing tomato fruits in comparison with similar measures.

Fruit quality and shelf-life of Sardinian tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) landraces

“…Following harvesting, the fruit were selected for uniformity in size and color, and absence of visual defects and fungal infection, and then transferred to the laboratory at the University of Sassari for analysis. The fruit were stored for 30 days at 13˚C and 90% relative humidity to reduce tomato decay and maintain tomato fruit quality while avoiding compromising tomato flavor due to chilling injury [59][60][61][62]. The analyses were performed at intervals of 10 days, mostly according to the procedures described by D'Aquino et al [63].…”