Fruit ripening conditions affect the quality of sliced red tomatoes Abstract Fresh cut tomato slices can deteriorate rapidly, with a correspondingly short shelf life. Almost all research to date has focused on fresh cut tomato preparation and storage, and little research has considered how postharvest handling of the whole fruit could affect the quality of the prepared fresh cut product. The quality and shelf life of slices prepared from ripe tomato fruit (hue angle 43) were evaluated in relation to initial ripening stage (breaker, 10% red, or turning, 30% red) ripening temperature (15, 20, or 25°C) and postharvest treatment with ethylene. Tomatoes ripened at a lower temperature (15°C) had higher fruit firmness, while tomatoes kept at 25°C had lower lycopene content and lower firmness. Juice loss increased during the storage of all slices, and was higher in slices from breaker stage fruit and from fruit treated with ethylene, but was not much affected by fruit ripening temperature. Lycopene content of the slices declined consistently during storage at 5°C. This study clearly showed that full red tomatoes can be a fresh cut product with good slice integrity and adequate shelf life (8 11 days at 5°C).The results also emphasize the need to assess postharvest handling protocols specific for fresh cut tomato processing. Keywords: INTRODUCTION Solanum lycopersicum MATERIALS AND METHODS Experiment 1: Quality of slices from fruit (‘901’) ripened from breaker and turning stages at 15, 20 or 25°C h Experiment 2: Slice quality of untreated or ethylene treated MG fruit (‘901’) ripened at 15, 20 or 25°C h Slice preparation Quality evaluation h Composition Statistical analysis RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Experiment 1: Quality of slices from BR and T fruit ripened at 15, 20 or 25°C °h h° h h Initial stage BR Ripening temperature (°C) 15 20 25 T 15 20 25 Initial stage Ripening temperature Time Stage × temperature Stage × time Temperature × time Stage × temperature × time Storage at 5°C (days) 0 7 11 0 7 11 0 7 11 0 7 11 0 7 11 0 7 11 SSC (%) 4.83 5.03 4.77 4.53 4.73 4.50 4.87 4.87 4.77 4.57 5.07 4.83 4.63 4.97 5.27 5.40 4.97 4.90 *0.15 NS NS 0.27* NS NS 0.16* TA Lycopene (%) (mg kg-1) 0.39 51.7 0.38 38.5 0.35 42.5 0.33 52.1 0.37 43.1 0.34 38.5 0.37 41.7 0.33 31.7 0.33 44.4 0.37 55.5 0.38 49.8 0.33 45.7 0.35 55.1 0.35 49.6 0.38 33.0 0.41 41.9 0.37 34.3 0.36 39.2 NS NS NS 5.3** NS 5.3* 0.038* 7.5* NS 2.6* NS 9.1** NS 13.0** Slice color (hue angle) 42.0 41.0 39.0 37.2 41.4 44.4 37.4 41.3 44.0 40.9 41.0 39.9 38.3 41.3 42.6 37.7 42.5 43.3 NS NS 1.17** NS 1.38** 2.02** 2.36** trans h° cis Experiment 2: Slice quality of ETH or NO ETH fruit ripened at 15, 20 or 25°C Treatment Ethylene No ethylene Ripening temperature (°C) 15 20 25 15 20 25 Values indicated by different lower-case letters are statistically different. Firmness (N) 25.19 e 21.25 c 19.21 b 22.98 d 21.66 cd 15.24 a Days needed to ripen 15 11 8 19 13 11 CONCLUSIONS Literature cited 17 3 19 3 25 4 59 41 28 3 37 3 25 2 125 39 190 682 41 2 Solanum lycopersicum 114 3 60 8