Quality of fresh‐cut tomatoes as affected by salt content in irrigation water and post‐processing ultraviolet‐C treatment

Summary

Abstract BACKGROUND: There is little information available concerning the effect of sanitizing agents, including ultraviolet (UV‐C) light, on nutritional composition of fresh‐cut produce. In this study, the influence of UV‐C light irradiation (3.2–19.2 kJ m−2) on the nutritional quality of fresh‐cut tomato cv. Durinta grown under either low (2.4/2.8 dS m−1) or high (4.9/7.7 dS m−1) electrical conductivity (EC) of the hydroponic nutrient influx/efflux solution was investigated. RESULTS: When grown under low EC UV‐C light treatment reduced development of microbial population of fresh‐cut tomato, increased phenolic content and delayed degradation of vitamin C after 7 days of storage at 4–6 °C. UV‐C light irradiation had no significant effect on appearance, color or lycopene content of fresh‐c