Impact of pulsed light treatments and storage time on the texture quality of fresh-cut tomatoes

Abstract

The effect of pulsed light (PL) treatments at fluences of 4, 6 or 8 J·cm-2 on microbial growth, weight loss, pectinmethyl esterase (PME) and polygalacturonase (PG) activities of fresh-cut tomatoes was evaluated through 20 days of storage at 5 ºC. Additionally, a pair-wise comparison test was assayed to determine whether potential consumers could detect differences between untreated and PL-treated samples. Microbial counts of PL-treated tomato slices were up to 2 log CFU g lower than those on untreated samples over storage. Fresh-cut tomatoes exhibited slight firmness decrements, changes on the pectinolytic enzymes and increased weight losses over the storage. However, sensory evaluation did not reveal significant differences over at least 10 days. In summary, PL-treatments showed to be effective to reduce the microbial growth with a low impact on the physical quality of fresh-cut tomatoes.

The Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) supported this work, through the project AGL 2010-21572. Carlos Guillermo Valdivia Nájar thanks to the University of Lleida (Spain) and Santander Banc, who awarded a Jade Plus grant for doctoral studies. The authors would like to acknowledge to Edelí Islas and Laia Vilarmau for their technical support. Prof. Olga Martín-Belloso is very thanksful to the Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA) for the Academia 2008 Award.