Vol. 11, Issue 3 (2022)

Author(s):
P Geetha and P Preetha

Abstract:
Tomatoes are most common consumable vegetable in the world and major sources of carotenoid in human diet. Due to highly perishable nature, tomatoes are wasted in large quantity during peak harvesting season. The most effective way to reduce the post-harvest loss of tomatoes is converting them in to value added products. The 1 cm slices were pre-treated with 2% of salt, sugar and sodium benzoate solution and dried in solar drier and analysed for its nutrition value. The moisture content was reduced from 93.92 ±1% (w.b.) to 7.0 ± 0.5% (w.b.) in a solar dryer for 28h, whereas 36h was required in sun drying. The maximum temperature of 52˚C and 36% of relative humidity was observed in the solar cabinet dryer. Among the different pre-treatments, the 2% sugar treated slices recorded lesser effect on the quality characteristics such as maximum retention of total sugars (91%), ascorbic acid (80%), lycopene (90%) and acidity (67%). Sensory attributes of soup prepared using 2% sugar treated solar dried slices have on par with fresh samples.