Cut-Tomato Preservation at Normal Atmospheric Temperature With Short-Time Microwave Treatment

Molding, rottening and fresh degree decreasing often happen during the process of fruits and vegetables preservation and transportation. Even worse it is losing its commercial value completely, which will cause huge economic loss. These fruits and vegetables cannot meet the need of consumers. Solving the problem of fruits and vegetables preservation, especially during transporting, can not only satisfy the requirement of market, but also regulate fruits and vegetables supplying, as well as gain economic profits. In this paper, orthogonal tests were conducted to study cut tomato preservation with short time microwave treatment. It was found that the vacuum packaged cut tomato only reached low temperature of pasteurization after short time microwave treatment, but it could be preserved for a long time under normal atmospheric temperature. The optimal treatment parameters were determined. The parameters are solution contains 0.12% vitamin C and microwave treatment time is 54 s; The image processing of samples were carried out to get color histograms and corresponding color mean, and effects of the method were explained with certain value. Effects of package on tomato were analyzed; it was considered that cut tomato would be packaged with lightproof package.