Cold Plasma Technology for Tomato Processing By-Product Valorization: The Case of Tomato Peeling and Peel Drying

The tomato processing industry is focused on product yield maximization, keeping energy costs and waste effluents to a minimum while maintaining high product quality. In our study, cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) pretreatment enhanced tomato processing to facilitate peelability, a specific peeling process, and enhance peel drying. Peeling force analysis determined that CAP pretreatment of whole tomatoes improved peelability under the conditions used. The specific peeling force after CAP treatment decreased by more than three times. It was observed that cold atmospheric plasma pretreatment reduced the duration of infrared drying of tomato peels by 18.2%. Along with that, a positive effect on the reduction of the specific energy consumption of peel drying was shown for CAP-pretreated tomato peels. The obtained data show that the technology of cold atmospheric plasma pretreatment, in particular, when processing whole tomatoes and tomato peels, has a promising application in industry, as it can significantly reduce the specific energy consumption for peeling and drying procedures.