Shelf Life of Pretreated Dried Tomato

Determining the shelf life has become a factor of major importance in the development of foods designed to meet consumer demands in terms of quality and safety. The goal of the present study was to investigate the shelf life of vacuum-packed dried tomatoes, stored at both room and refrigeration temperature (4 °C) for a period of 180 days. The following determinations were performed during the storage period studied: microbiological analysis, instrumental color, lycopene, and ascorbic acid. Sorption isotherms were determined at both temperatures (room temperature and 4 °C). The microbiological quality of vacuum-packed dried tomatoes remained unchanged during 180 days for the refrigerated samples and 90 days for the samples stored at room temperature. The rate constant (k) of lycopene degradation of the refrigerated samples and the samples stored at room temperature was 3.209 × 10⁻⁵ and 12.994 × 10⁻⁵/day, respectively. The rate constant (k) of ascorbic acid degradation was 3.339 × 10⁻⁴/day for cold storage and 76.655 × 10⁻⁴/day for storage at room temperature. The tomatoes stored at room temperature were subjected to analysis over 90 days of storage, period after which both the appearance and sensory characteristics of the product fell below the levels of consumer acceptability. As for the tomatoes stored at refrigeration temperature, the original sensory characteristics were maintained throughout the entire storage period of 180 days.