EFFECT OF SOME PACKAGING MATERIALS AND STORAGE TEMPERATURE ON QUALITY ATTRIBUTES OF POWDER AND SLICES OF DRIED TOMATOES

Tomato fruits (Peto 86 variety) were used in this investigation for the production of both tomato powder and dried tomato slices. Ven­tilated oven dryer was used in the drying process. Powder and slices of tomatoes were packed in three different types of packaging materials i.e milky polypropylene, polyproplene metalized and trilayerbags then stored at both ambient temperature and refrigerator at +5°C for 6 months. Samples were analyzed at intervals of two months for moisture content, total titratable acidity, reducing sugars, total sugars, ascorbic acid, lyco­pene, color index, microbial count and organoleptic qualities. Lycopene and ascorbic acid decreased while color index increased by increasing the storage period in all samples. Slight changes in sugars and total titrata­ble acidity content were observed. Results also showed that all samples contained less than 30 colonies forming unit per gram for both total bac­terial, mold and yeast count during storage. Chemical analysis and organ­oleptic evaluation revealed that samples packed in trilayer bags and stored in refrigerator were the best during storage.