Abstract:
Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is one of the most widely cultivated and extensively consumed horticultural
crops and ranks second in production after potato (Solanum tuberosum) worldwide. It is one of the very
perishable fruit and it changes continuously after harvesting. There are many postharvest technologies that
extend the marketable life of fruits and vegetables. The research was conducted with the overall objective to
evaluate the effect of storage condition and packing materials on shelf life and quality of tomato. Three types of
packing material were taken i.e. modified-atmosphere packaging (MAP), high density polyethylene (HDPE) and
low density polyethylene (LDPE) brought to Post harvest laboratory of JUCAVM. Two types of storage
refrigerator and ambient were used. The highest weight loss was recorded for tomato stored in ambient
atmosphere without packaging (control) (11.68%) while the least loss was recorded in refrigerator in packaging
HDPE (1.67%) after 24 days. The amount of organic acid usually decreases during maturity, because it is
substrate of respiration. Significant difference in firmness values was observed for stored tomato fruit due to
effect storage condition. Even though decrease in firmness was observed in storage days the trend was not linear
over storage days. In general, decreasing the storage temperature (refrigerator) slows the metabolic activity of
the stored product including firmness.
