Changes of Physicochemical Properties of Tomato during Different Stages of Ripening

Evaluation of effective physical and chemical indices on crop quality is essentioal for recognition of suitable harvest time and case consumption of tomato cultivars becomes possible with determination of the limitations for. For this reason 9 tomato hybrid cultivars and a greenhouse cultivar (breaker, turning, pink, light red, red and deep red) were harvested at 6 stages of ripening. Results of the measured physical and chemical factors showed that in all cultivars, citric acid and firmness decreased and ascorbic acid, density and dry matter increased during ripening. Fruits with sphericity index lower and higher than 0.85 were oval and sphere respectively. Fruits with diameter higher than 54 mm were marketable and smaller sizes were suitable for canning industry. Fruits with frimness values below 22 N cm-2 were most sensitive cultivars & fruits with firmness values above 30 N cm-2 were resistant cultivars aganst craching and damage. Cultivars with Minolta values (a*/b*) above 1.55 and 2 was suitable for fresh consumption and processing Key Words: