Optimizing shelf life conditions for anthocyanin-rich tomatoes

Abstract

Shelf life is the time a product can be stored without losing its qualitative characteristics. It represents one of the most critical quality traits for food products, particularly for fleshy fruits, including tomatoes. Tomatoes’ shelf life is usually shortened due to fast over-ripening caused by several different factors, among which changes in temperature, respiration and pathogen exposure. Although tomatoes usually do not contain anthocyanins, varieties enriched in these antioxidant compounds have been recently developed. The anthocyanin-rich tomatoes have been shown to possess a significantly extended shelf life by delayed over-ripening and reduction of the susceptibility to certain pathogens. In the present work, we compared different conditions of postharvest storage of anthocyanin-rich tomato fruits with the aim to understand if the added value represented by the presence of the anthocyanins in the fruit peel can be affected in postharvest. For this purpose we used an anthocyanin-enriched tomato line derived from conventional breeding and took into consideration different light and temperature conditions, known to affect fruit physiology during postharvest as well as anthocyanin production. Several quality traits related to the fruit ripening were measured, including anthocyanin and carotenoid content, pH, titratable acidity and total soluble solids. In this way we identified that the most suitable fruit storage and postharvest anthocyanin accumulation were obtained through exposure to cool temperature (12° C), particularly in the presence of light. Under these parameters, tomato fruits showed increased anthocyanin content and unchanged flavour-related features up to three weeks after harvesting.

Interactive effects of salinity and silicon application on Solanum lycopersicum growth, physiology and shelf‐life of fruit produced hydroponically

“…significant differences in post‐storage quality may occur between short‐ and long‐shelf‐life cultivars, while Petric et al . highlighted the significance of proper storage temperature for retaining good post‐storage quality . Following storage at 25 °C, no changes were observed between the salinity levels concerning color attributes ( L *, a *, b *) probably because all tested fruit where harvested at mature red stage and no further color development should be expected after this stage, as well as to the fact that lycopene content which is responsible for red color remained unaffected for all the treatments …”

Metabolite Changes during Postharvest Storage: Effects on Fruit Quality Traits

“…In this sense, postharvest cold storage is a mandatory strategy to enhance anthocyanin content in some fruits such as blood oranges, some varieties of plums and anthocyanin-rich tomatoes [89,90]. Interestingly, it has been described that tomato anthocyanin-rich lines are able to maintain fruit quality for longer during storage, mainly by reducing their susceptibility to Botrytis cinerea [91,92].…”

Effects of Genotype, Storage Temperature and Time on Quality and Compositional Traits of Cherry Tomato

“…Indeed, fresh vegetables are perishable commodities, whose postharvest decay represents a primary matter of social concern in terms of economic (loss of capital, fuel and manpower) and environmental costs (due to landfilling), associated to losses of valuable phytonutrients [5]. In this context, temperature is a key factor to extend quality of fresh horticultural products along the distribution chain [6]. Because of its sensitivity to chilling injuries [7], the optimization of tomatoes cold storage implies a compromise between temperatures low enough 2 of 15 to slow down the ripening process but high enough to generate either no or tolerable side effects on the main organoleptic and nutritional traits [8].…”