Kinetics of Quality Changes in Tomatoes Stored in Evaporative Cooled Room in Hot Region

Abstract

Performance of an Evaporative cooled (EC) room, built in hot and dry region of Punjab, was evaluated by storing the tomato fruits (var. Naveen) in it. Tomatoes were also stored in two other storage conditions, cold store (CS) and room conditions (RC). Average temperature and RH inside EC room during study was 26.5°C and 65-78%, respectively. The temperature and RH of RC and CS storage conditions were 25-41°C and 20-35%, and 10°C and 90%, respectively. Study observed that storage conditions affected PLW, TSS, colour and texture of fruits significantly (p<0.05). Physiological loss in weight (PLW) was determined as 16.91%, 10.38% and 5.95% in fruits stored at RC, EC room and CS storage, respectively. Overall, fruits stored at EC room and CS storage conditions delayed the quality deterioration of fruits in terms of PLW, colour and firmness. Fractional conversion kinetic model was found to be best fit to the experimental data on PLW, TSS, colour and firmness of stored tomatoes (R2≥0.94, random residual plots). Effect of storage temperature of studied storage conditions on all the quality parameters was described well by Arrhenius equation. Thus, these models would be useful in predicting the quality changes in tomatoes (var. Naveen) under storage conditions (RC, EC room and CS) of present study.