Exposure of green tomatoes to hot water affects ripening and reduces decay and chilling injury

摘要

Commercially packed mature-green Florida 'Sanibel', 'Florida47', and 'SunPride' tomatoes (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) that had not been treated with ethylene were immersed in water at 24 deg C (ambient control) or 44 to 54 deg C for various times. Tomatoes were evaluated for ripeness stage, decay, heat injury and chilling injury symptoms, and surface color following 2 weeks of storage at 2 or 12 deg C and subsequently for up to 10 days of ripening at 20 deg C. Treatment for 60-90 min at 44, 46, or 48 deg C, or 2.5-30 min at 54 deg C caused heat injury symptoms (ripening inhibition, stem end creasing, tissue collapse, increased decay). Exposure to 50 deg C for 2.5 min did not cause any detectable heat injury, whereas the 5 or 10 min at 50 deg C or 2.5 min at 52 deg C treatments were associated with only slight incidence and severity of heat injury. All four of those treatments prevented chilling injury symptom development and reduced decay incidence. Exposure to 50 deg water for 2.5, 5, or 10 rain stimulated ripening-related color development after 12 deg C storage, but, after 2 deg C storage, color development of hot water-treated tomatoes was delayed, although normal. Heat treatments tended to magnify maturity variability within a lot of tomatoes, with less mature fruit apparently more sensitive to ripening inhibition and heat injury.