MODIFIED ATMOSPHERE PACKAGING OF FRESH-CUT TOMATO

Consumption of fresh-cut fruits and vegetables has increased considerably during recent years, because of the consumer demand for fresh “ready to use” horticultural commodities. There are very few fresh-cut fruits on the markets since fruits have a more complicated physiology than vegetables and are, therefore, more difficult to preserve with good quality. Chemical treatments applied as washing, after cutting, have not been very effective in maintaining fresh-cut tomato quality (Gil et al., 1999). Active modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) of 7.5% O₂ + 0% CO₂ has been described as beneficial for reducing the rate of ripening on fresh-cut, temperature-abused tomatoes (Artés et al., 1999). In the present work, several films with a large range of permeabilities were compared in order to investigate the effects of passive MAP on fresh-cut tomato quality.