Physicochemical Changes of Impacted Tomatoes with Pendulum Mechanical Forces

Abstract

Tomato is one of the sensitive fruits to mechanical impacts and physical tensions. The most<br />mechanical damages arise from handling which results in reducing tomato quality. in this study,<br />impact energy effect has been studied in 3 different levels 0, 0.14 and 0.25 J by a pendulum impact<br />apparatus, on changes of physicochemical properties of tomato, hybrid variety Shiva F1, including<br />ripening factor, wet content physical properties such as texture resistance versus shearing force ,<br />color and shelf life during a period of shelf life for 20 days in Temperature 11±1°C and relative<br />humidity 94±2 percent. It is found that when mechanical energy increase, like something results<br />from increasing shelf life, texture resistance decrease versus shearing force. However increasing<br />impact energy not only reduces firmness texture and wet content in production but also<br />increasing ripening factor and its color during storing time. Results show the least shelf life and<br />most unsuitable changes in 0.25 J samples.