Volume 4 • Issue 4 • 1000222 J Food Process Technol ISSN:2157-7110 JFPT, an open access journal Open Access Research Article Food Processing & Technology Chattopadhyay et al., J Food Process Technol 2013, 4:4 http://dx.doi.org/10.4172/2157-7110.1000222 Keywords: Tomato; Hybrid; Yield; Processing quality Introduction Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) is one of the important crops used as fresh vegetable as well as a variety of processed products such as juice, ketchup, sauce, canned fruits, puree, paste, etc. Tomato and tomato products made its attention even in terms of value of micro- nutrients existing at low concentration. Apart from contributing nutritive elements, colour and lavour to the diet, tomatoes are also a valuable source of antioxidants, or chemo-protective compounds, and may thus be termed a “functional food” [1]. he antioxidant potential of tomato is derived from a mixture of antioxidant biomolecules, including lycopene, ascorbic acid, phenolics, lavonoids and vitamin E, and is especially high in cherry tomatoes [2]. Because of their importance to human health [3], antioxidants may be considered a valuable quality attribute of tomatoes and it is important to minimize losses of these compounds during the post-harvest period. Tomato ranks 11 th as the possible sources of Vitamin A and 25 th for Vitamin C among the vegetables grown in India [4]. A beneicial efect of tomato consumption in the prevention of some chronic diseases such as some type of cancer and cardiovascular diseases has been reported [5]. Apart from the nutritional and antioxidant vitamin contents, sugars and organic acids, which form a substantial fraction of tomato dry matter, are relevant more to taste attributes than to the nutritional value of tomato, with tomato antioxidants playing a major role in the latter aspect [6]. Quality and lavour of the processed products depend on chemical components like reducing sugar, acidity, ascorbic acid, lycopene, ß-carotene, T.S.S. and total sugar which has been reported to vary greatly with variety [7]. he desirable qualities for a tomato cultivar to be used for processing includes high total soluble solids (4-8° Brix), acidity not less than 0.4%, pH less than 4.5, uniform red colour, smooth surface, free from wrinkles, small core, irm lesh and uniform ripening [8]. here is an extensive 60-year literature on the quality of processed tomato products and on breeding cultivars to suit processing needs. here has also been considerable research on tomato agronomy, yet there are clearly large gaps in the understanding of how the ield environment and crop management inluence each of the fruit properties measured *Corresponding author: Arup Chattopadhyay, All India Coordinated Research Project on Vegetable Crops, Directorate of Research, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Kalyani-741235, Nadia, West Bengal, India, E-mail: chattopadhyay.arup@gmail.com Received January 23, 2013; Accepted February 22, 2013; Published February 28, 2013 Citation: Chattopadhyay A, Chakraborty IVI, Siddique W (2013) Characterization of Determinate Tomato Hybrids: Search for Better Processing Qualities. J Food Process Technol 4: 222. doi:10.4172/2157-7110.1000222 Copyright: © 2013 Chattopadhyay A, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Abstract Thirty-one determinate tomato hybrids developed by both public and private sectors in India over the years were characterized in order to select the most appropriate hybrids for processing purpose. The performance of each hybrid was evaluated using certain physical and chemical indices. Most quality indices showed signiicant differences between hybrids, although their values remained in the typical ranges for processing tomatoes. In our study, two pear shaped private bred hybrids (BSS-423; TH-1359) qualiied all the physico-chemical characteristics required for processing. However, three round shaped public (BCTH-62 and BCTH-4) and private (Vijay Lakshmi) bred hybrids also showed great promise for requisite qualiication. The promising hybrids also showed high yield potential (> 60.0 t/ha) which is the general acceptance criteria among the farmers. The correlation study indicates some signiicant positive relationship between polar diameter and pericarp thickness, equatorial diameter and locule number, titratable acidity and vitamin C content, and lycopene and total carotenoids content of the fruit. The data generated in this study is of equal signiicance for the growers as well as for the tomato processors in the long run. Characterization of Determinate Tomato Hybrids: Search for Better Processing Qualities Arup Chattopadhyay 1 *, IVI Chakraborty 2 and Wasim Siddique 2 1 All India Coordinated Research Project on Vegetable Crops, Directorate of Research, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Kalyani-741235, Nadia, West Bengal, India 2 Department of Post Harvest Technology of Horticultural Crops, Faculty of Horticulture, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Mohanpur-741252, Nadia, West Bengal, India at harvest to estimate the quality of processed products. Tomato paste is the product of most interest since it is reformulated into many other products. he market of tomato processing products around the world are expanding whereas, in the tropics, the tomato processing industry oten confronted with the problem of limited supply of processing tomatoes. Low yield increases the cost and the risk of growing tomatoes. herefore, farmer’s income is decreased. Scientists from the tropical regions have identiied the reasons why tomato varieties grow in these areas are unadapted. he reasons fall into three main categories, i.e., susceptibility to diseases, low fruit setting ability and poor quality fruits. However, in the developing countries of wet and humid tropics, there are far more important steps that need to be taken. First is to improve the processing tomato varieties to adaptable varieties of the tropics, since the potential for tomatoes in tropics is great. In most of the advanced countries, nearly 80% of the fresh tomatoes are processed into various products. Currently, only 2.2% of the total produce in India is processed and the rest marketed as fresh vegetables [9]. Tomato quality depends on many factors such as cultivar, growing condition and ripening on and of the vine. he physical and chemical characteristics of tomato also afect the quality of processed product. herefore, good quality tomatoes should be processed for the best products. High yield coupled with good processing qualities are the pre-requisites for the general acceptance of the hybrid by the farmers. However, very little attempt has been made so far to assess the physical