Journal Article

Effects of Different Drying Methods and Packaging Materials on Quality of Tomato Powder

Abstract

Tomato has a very limited shelf life because of its climacteric in nature, high respiration rate and moisture content that facilitate deterioration soon after harvest. This research was carried out to determine the effect of different drying methods and packaging materials on chemical characteristics of tomato powder. The fruits were harvested at fully matured and ripe. The harvested fruits were subjected to blanching prior to three different drying methods and packaging materials before storage for twelve weeks. The three drying methods were shade, sun and oven drying, while the packaging materials were polythene bag, plastic container and glass jar. The experiment was arranged in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) and replicated three times. From the results, at four weeks of storage, significant difference (P≤0.05) was observed among the drying methods and shade dried had the highest Ash content of 7.70% while oven dried recorded the highest Carbohydrates content of 70.06%. Also, oven dried had the highest Calorific value of 318.80 kj/cal. From the packaging materials, glass jar recorded the highest fibre content of 14.91%, and Vitamin C (11.73 mg/100g). Furthermore, glass jar was found to be statistically better in maintaining the nutritive value of the dried samples because of it static chemical property and low permeability to absorbs moisture within the storage environment which ensures unimpaired taste, colour and other vital nutrients followed by plastic container and polythene bag. Therefore, blanching prior to drying and the use of glass container should be adopted for better quality and longer shelf life of the products

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