Tomato Quality during Short-Term Storage Assessed by Colour and Electronic Nose.

VALERIA MESSINA; PıA GUADALUPE DOMıNGUEZ; ANA MARIA SANCHO; NOEMI WALSOE DE RECA; FERNANDO CARRARI; GABRIELA GRIGIONI

International Journal of Electrochemistry

Hindawi

Año: 2012 p. 1 - 7

2090-3529

An assay based on an electronic olfactory system was set to evaluate tomato fruits by sensing the aromatic volatiles during postharvest storage of 21 days at 19 ± 0.5◦ C in darkness. Olfactory system measurements were coupled with colour values. Odour profile and senescence parameters were carried out at 7-day intervals. Discriminant function analysis applied to electronic nose data showed three components, accounting for 99.2% of the total variance. In the present assay, separation among groups according to storage time (0, 7, and 14 days) was observed for wildtype. Overexpressed (Money Maker) lines/plants of tomato showed difference between odour profile for day 0 and day 21, even tough a no clear discrimination between 7 and 14 days was observed. Fruit lost weight almost linearly with shelf life (P< 0.001) presenting an averaged loss of 21% (r2 = 0.98) for over- expressed (MoneyMaker) lines/plants, 13% (r2 = 0.97) for silenced (MoneyMaker), and 14% (r2 = 0.98) for wild type during 21 days of storage. Colour values L∗, a∗,and b∗ data showed that colour properties changed during storage for all the lines considered. Correlations between odour profiles and colour parameter were obtained showing that the electronic nose is a useful technique for monitoring short-term storage of tomato.