Influence of Storage Periods and Temperatures on Postharvest Quality of Fresh-Marketed Lycopersicon esculentum Mill

Abstract

A food production system does not end in harvesting crops rather it extends up to the postharvest phases like storage, transporting, marketing, and consumption. Diamante Max F1, a hybrid tomato, is resistive to most diseases but it is one of the most highly perishable tomatoes because of its high moisture content and thin skin that can be easily affected by hot temperatures. In this study, a new non-invasive characterization technique for tomato fruit was developed using integrated computer vision and computational intelligence modeling. The Diamante F1 Max Philippine tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) variety was used as fruit cultivar and exposed to two postharvest storage treatments: room temperature with $23-34^{\circ} C$ uncontrolled atmosphere; and cold room with constant $18^{\circ} C$ throughout the 14 days of storage period. Multigene genetic programming generated four predictive models of the architectural phenotypes: daily weight loss, surface area, total color difference, and tomato color index as functions of storage temperatures and periods. To say that fresh-marketed tomatoes are degrading, its surface area and total color difference should be decreasing, and its daily weight loss and total color index should be increasing. Morpho-anatomical analysis was performed to further analyze the degree of quality degradation in the pericarp, columella, placenta, seed membrane, and fruit epidermis. Pericarp cells shrink due to dehydration and locular gel around the seeds reduces manifesting weight loss. Overall, the influence of temperature and storage period should be managed right after harvesting the fresh produce to preserve its quality and prolong its shelf life for human consumption.