Effect of chilling temperatures and controlled atmosphere on tomato flavour

Tomato, flavour, chilling temperatures, controlled atmosphere Tomato flavor is recognized as a source of consumer dissatisfaction. Postharvest temperatures recommended as safe to avoid chilling injury (CI) based on lack of visible symptoms, suppress tomato aroma development. We investigated how temperatures above the putative CI threshold of 12.5 ?C affect aroma of pink ?Tasti Lee? tomatoes and if controlled atmosphere (CA) could overcome loss of shelf life at those higher temperatures without compromising aroma. Fruit were held for 10 days in air or CA (12% O2 plus 4% CO2 and 8% O2 plus 6% CO2 at 12.5 ?C and 8% O2 plus 6% CO2 or 3% O2 plus 8% CO2 at 15 and 18 ?C). Aroma volatiles and other quality features were measured on days 0, 5, and 10 as well as after shelf life (2 days in air at 20 ?C) following D5 and D10. Fruit at the higher temperatures ripened more uniformly on transfer to air at 20 ?C than fruit stored at 12.5 ?C. MHO, a CI marker, increased at 18 ?C and was lowest at 12.5 ?C, and was also lower in CA than in air, even though it?s percentage of the total volatiles was maintained higher in CA. Beta ionone, a volatile with very high log odor units, was also higher in air than in CA at all temperatures after D10. Geranyl acetone, which has a fruity aroma, and citral were higher at 18 ?C followed by 15 ?C and 12.5 ?C on D10. Hexanal, a basic tomato aroma, was found to increase over time at all temperatures. However, in CA its contribution as a percent of the total volatiles was higher than in air meaning that most of the other volatiles were suppressed by CA. While CA reduced CI and extended shelf life, aroma was reduced, especially in more extreme CA. ? Original title, complete list of authors, and sources:TOMATO FLAVOR CHANGES AT CHILLING AND NON-CHILLING TEMPERATURES AS INFLUENCED BY CONTROLLED ATMOSPHERESDeltsidis, A.I.; Pliakoni, E.D.; Baldwin, E.A.; Bai, J.; Plotto,A. and Brecht, J.K. adeltsidis@ufl.eduUniversity of Florida, USACAMA 2013, XI International Controlled & Modified Atmosphere Research Conference, Trani (Italy), 3-7 June. ? Picture: Cherry tomatoes in CA. Source: http://solucionespost-cosecha.blogspot.it/2013/04/atmosferas-modificadas-en-tomate-cherry.html