Postharvest Quality of Grape Tomatoes for Vegetable Trays

Grape and cherry tomatoes now constitute about 24% of the value of all tomatoes sold in U.S. supermarkets.  For performance in vegetable trays, the differences among grape tomato varieties were not as important as overall freedom from defects (shrivel, mechanical damage) and the stage of ripeness.  Marketing grape tomatoes as components of fresh-cut vegetable trays exposes them to temperatures of 5C or below, often in combination with modified atmospheres.  These conditions are at odds with usual storage and handling recommendations for good tomato quality.  Several storage studies were conducted on different varieties of grape tomatoes.  At 5C grape tomato fruit (orange-red) could be stored up to 18 days and still be of marketable quality if kept cold.  Continuous storage at 5C resulted in minimal weight loss (a significant cause of quality loss in grape tomato), no lycopene synthesis, retention of Vitamin C, but decreases in sugar concentrations. However if fruit were transferred from 5C and 10C to warmer temperatures, typical chilling injury symptoms (decay, poor color) occured as expected on the fruit stored at 5C but not on those stored at 10C.  Controlled atmospheres of 3 or 10% oxygen with 0, 7, 12 or 18% carbon dioxide provided little benefit but were tolerated by grape tomatoes for up to 3 weeks at 5C (based on visual appearance, discoloration, decay, off-odors, and changes in sugars, Vitamin C, and ethanol and acetaldehyde concentrations). Near ripe high quality grape tomatoes perform well as components of fresh-cut vegetable trays under temperatures and atmospheres not recommended for tomatoes.  Future work should focus on the eating (sensory) quality of the grape tomatoes under these conditions.