Effect of Storage Conditions and Packing Materials on Shelf life of Tomato

Abstract

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is one of the most widely cultivated and extensively consumed horticultural crops and ranks second in production after potato (Solanum tuberosum) worldwide. It is one of the very perishable fruit and it changes continuously after harvesting. There are many postharvest technologies that extend the marketable life of fruits and vegetables. The research was conducted with the overall objective to evaluate the effect of storage condition and packing materials on shelf life and quality of tomato. Three types of packing material were taken i.e. modified-atmosphere packaging (MAP), high density polyethylene (HDPE) and low density polyethylene (LDPE) brought to Post harvest laboratory of JUCAVM. Two types of storage refrigerator and ambient were used. The highest weight loss was recorded for tomato stored in ambient atmosphere without packaging (control) (11.68%) while the least loss was recorded in refrigerator in packaging HDPE (1.67%) after 24 days. The amount of organic acid usually decreases during maturity, because it is substrate of respiration. Significant difference in firmness values was observed for stored tomato fruit due to effect storage condition. Even though decrease in firmness was observed in storage days the trend was not linear over storage days. In general, decreasing the storage temperature (refrigerator) slows the metabolic activity of the stored product including firmness.

Keywords: high density polyethylene, low density polyethylene, modified atmosphere packaging and packing material