Extension of shelf life of pre-cooled tomato fruit under refrigerated transport condition storage

The effect of pre-cooling methods i.e. hydrocooling, forced air cooling and chilled water dipping at three cooling media temperatures (4, 6 and 8°C) on shelf life of tomato fruit (cv. Narendra-2) was studied. The pre-cooled samples were stored under refrigerated transport condition (13±2°C and 85–95% RH) storage and physiological parameters like physiological loss in weight (PLW), percent spoilage, firmness in fruit and biochemical parameters like changes in total soluble solids, titratable acidity and lycopene content were observed at three days interval throughout the shelf life. The study revealed that pre-cooling with chilled water dipping (8.5, 16.17 and 19.75 min at of 4, 6 and 8°C cooling media temperature respectively) was the fastest method for rapid removal of field heat to achieve desired product temperature (10±0.5°C) followed by hydrocooling and forced air cooling. The maximum shelf life of 39 days was found for samples subjected to 8°C hydrocooling had advantage of 18 days over control (21 days) under refrigerated transport condition storage.