Abstract

CASIERRA-POSADA, Fánor  and  AGUILAR-AVENDANO, Óscar E.. Quality of tomato fruits (Solanum lycopersicum L.) harvested at different maturity stages. Agron. colomb. [online]. 2008, vol.26, n.2, pp.300-307. ISSN 0120-9965.

Tomato is one of the highest volume vegetables sold for fresh consumption; losses on tomato business chain start at harvest and go until postharvest through handling. An experiment was carried out in Tunja ( Colombia ) aimed to evaluate the changes in tomato fruit quality in dependence of different maturity stages at harvest. Fruits were selected according to their green and red color percentage. Evaluated tomato hybrids were Sofia, Bravona and Marimba. The response parameters were firmness, total soluble solids, titratable acidity, pH, maturity index, and weight lose. The results showed that weight lose, titrable acidity and firmness decrease as fruits were harvested at late maturity stages, while total soluble solids and maturity index were increased only when fruits were harvested at late maturity stages. pH values were very little modified by harvest timing of fruits. The postharvest behavior of hybrids was very different for all dependent variables; finally, the better maturity stage to harvesting in Bravona and Marimba hybrids was when fruits reached 75% green and 25% red; Sofia fruits can be picked at 50% green and 50% red in order to keep the organoleptic characteristics and better quality.

Keywords : firmness; total soluble solids; titratable acidity; pH; maturity index; weight loss.

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