COLOR AND OTHER QUALITY ASPECTS OF TOMATO FRUITS SUBJECTED TO A SHORT PERIOD OF INDUCED COMPRESSION

Abstract

Means of transportation, packaging, harvesting procedures, maturation at harvest, climatic conditions, and many others variables affect the quality and post-harvest life of agricultural products. In Brazil, tomatoes are still packaged in the wooden box type k, first used to transport fuel in World War II. In this type of package, the fruits are placed randomly and the boxes are stacked during harvest, transport and distribution to the consumer. This handling leads to quantitative and qualitative losses. Better handling is needed to decrease mechanical damage and maintain the quality and price of tomatoes. The present work aimed to evaluate some quality characteristics of tomato fruits ('Pizzadoro') submitted to an induced com-pression, simulating the wooden boxes stacked up during transportation. A specific weight per unit area of the original wooden box k was determined (12.5 g cm-2), and used to obtain the weight needed (5 kg) to compress fifteen fruits inside small wooden boxes of 23×20×20 cm during 48 hours. After this treatment, these fruits and control fruits (without treatment) were stored at 15 or 25°C. The following variables were measured during eighteen days of storage: color, lycopene, total soluble solids and pH. It was concluded that the compression treatment significantly altered all variables studied, except for pH and total soluble solids of fruits stored at 15°C.