Nutritional Changes In Deteriorating Tomato Fruits

ABSTRACT

This work evaluated the nutritional changes in deteriorating tomatoes' stored at room temperature for fifteen days. During this period, the tomatoes deteriorated gradually. The vitamin A and C content, pH, titratable acidity of the fruit were evaluated every other day. Vitamin A content reduced from day 1 to day 15 (1003.09πg/100g- 856.20g/100g), vitamin c also reduced from 66.66mg(day1) to 9.40nig/100g(day 15). pH reduced from 4.61 to 4.39 within the same period. On the other hand, microbial load of the tomatoes increased from 4.0 x 10² cfu (first day) to 1.26 x 10³cfu (15th day) while the titraiable acidity increased from 0.320 to 0.593.