The effects of ethanol treatment on the metabolism, shelf life and quality of stored tomatoes at different maturities and temperatures

✍ Scribed by Yanuriati, Anny; Savage, Geoffrey P; Rowe, Richard N

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 113 KB
• Volume: 79
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0022-5142
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-0010(19990515)79:7<995::aid-jsfa315>3.0.co;2-d

✦ Synopsis

Two maturity stages of commercially grown tomatoes (breaker and mature green) were exposed to ethanol vapour (2 ml ethanol kg À1 fruit) for 6 h at 20 °C prior to storage at 5 °C and 20 °C. During storage the colour, ®rmness and composition changes were examined every 3 and 7 days. The results showed that ethanol vapour treatment could signi®cantly slow down the colour changes and softening of both mature green and breaker tomatoes with greater effects when stored at 5 °C. There was no difference between the two maturity stages in retardation of softening during storage; in contrast the maturity stage had a highly signi®cant effect in the colour development of stored tomatoes. When the fruit stored at 5 °C was then held at 20 °C for 7 days the ripening process was accelerated but the fruit did not reach the same level of colour development as the fruit stored at 20 °C continuously. The results suggest that ethanol vapour pretreatment could be used as a cheap and easy method to extend the storage life of tomatoes.