Effects Of Drying Methods On The Microbial, Proximate And Mineral Composition Of Three Types Of Tomatoes (Lycopersicon Escullentum)

ABSTRACT

 Three species of tomatoes (Lycopersicon esulentum) - pear, cherry and snake tomatoes were dried using three different methods. They are sun-drying, cabinet drying and oven drying. The microbial, proximate and mineral compositions were determined. The result of the microbial analysis showed that total growth of mould (fungus) was insignificant. There was no bacterial growth. Sun dried cherry tomatoes had the highest fungi count (16.00 x 10 cfu/g). The result of the proximate analysis and mineral composition data were significantly different at (P

<0.05). Cherry tomatoes directly sun-dried had the highest protein (26.16%). Cherry Directly Sun-dried and Pear Oven dried had the highest crude fiber (13% and 13% respectively. Cabinet sun-dried Cherry tomatoes had the highest amount of fat (13.20%), while the highest ash value was observed in pear directly sun-dried (19.07%). Cherry directly Sun-dried had the highest Zn content (10.03%). Cabinet dried Snake tomatoes had the highest amount of Calcium (21.78%). Sun-dried pear had highest Iron content (10.18%). Lycopene content was observed to be highest in directly sun-dried Cherry tomatoes (273.9pg/ bOg) and Vitamin C (51.92%) in Oven dried Cherry. The micro-organism identified after drying was Botrylis spp.>