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ARS Home » Southeast Area » Fort Pierce, Florida » U.S. Horticultural Research Laboratory » Citrus and Other Subtropical Products Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #338609
Research Project: Quality, Shelf-life and Health Benefits for Fresh, Fresh-cut and Processed Products for Citrus and Other Tropical/Subtropical-grown Fruits and Vegetables

Location: Citrus and Other Subtropical Products Research

Title: Responses of volatile compounds in inner tissues on refrigeration in full ripe tomatoes

Author
item WANG, LIBIN - Yangzhou University
item Bai, Jinhe
item YU, ZHIFANG - Nanjing Agricultural University

Submitted to: Journal of Food Processing and Preservation
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/4/2016
Publication Date: 12/1/2017
Citation: Wang, L., Bai, J., Yu, Z. 2017. Responses of volatile compounds in inner tissues on refrigeration in full ripe tomatoes. Journal of Food Processing and Preservation. 41:e13272. https://doi.org/10.1111/jfpp.13272.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/jfpp.13272

Interpretive Summary: The inner tissues contain low concentrations of volatiles than the pericarp in tomato fruits. However, there is little information on the sensitivity of inner tissues to chilling injury. This report provided valuable information on volatile profile in the inner tissue and the responses to chilling exposure: to horticulturists for potential mechanisms of volatile metabolisms, and to food scientists for relative contributions of different fruit tissues.

Technical Abstract: A 4-day storage of tomato fruit in refrigerator, a common consumer practice in kitchens, which is not recommended though, would significant suppress the volatile production in pericarp; however, little is reported on volatile profile in inner tissues. In this study, red “FL 47” tomato fruits were stored at 5 °C or 20 °C for 4 days to simulate the major consumer storage types. Inner tissues were sampled immediately after treatments for volatile analysis. Although no visual chilling injury (CI) symptom was observed, refrigeration considerably suppressed the productions of aldehydes, nitrogen- and oxygencontaining heterocyclic compounds, oxygen-containing heterocyclic compounds, esters, and alcohols, including 10 abundant and/or important volatile compounds. Principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis (CA) based on the results of chromatography-mass spectrometer (GCMS) and electronic nose (e-nose) analysis discriminated the volatile profiles between control and refrigerated fruit, which indicated that volatiles in inner tissue, another contribution to tomato aroma, also altered by refrigeration, and confirmed that refrigeration was not recommended to consumers.