Effect of Mechanical Damage on Tomato Fruits under Storage Conditions

This research was carried out to study some mechanical damage effecting properties on tomatoes during storage. Experimental include simulation of mechanical damage by using a device developed by (Geasa, 2021). A device used to compress tomato’s sample to achieve a 10 mm deformation distance. Two methods namely, flat probe and 30˚ cone penetration probe, two compress positions Z axis and X axis, and two storage methods (room and cooling conditions), under 4 storage periods (5, 10, 15 and 20 days) were tested. Physical properties (the mean length, width, thickness, arithmetic mean diameter, geometric mean diameter, surface area, sphericity, aspect ratio, mass, volume, and true density) of the tomato were 48.78, 56.48, 53.27, 52.84, 52.71mm, 8759.62 mm 2 , 1.08 %, 1.16, 83.67 g, 87.85 cm 3 , and 0.96 g/cm 3 , respectively. Average temperatures C o were 18.8 and 9.9 and relative humidity % were 53.4 and 47.56 for room and refrigerator respectively. Mechanical properties of static friction coefficients for five surfaces of wood, plastic, rubber, cartoon, and galvanized iron steel were 0.4, 0.27, 0.33, 0.26 and 0.29 respectively. The changes in chemical properties of tomato including total soluble solids (TSS), and pH were measured. The study final results reveal that, the highest value of firmness of 2.8 N/cm 2 was obtained at refrigeration storage method and control sample. While, the average of force needed to made 10 mm deformation on z axis more than on x axis of tomato samples.