Effect of Non-Thermal Plasma on Post-Harvest Quality of Tomato

Abstract

The goal of this experiment is to study the effect of NTP on the shelf life and quality of tomato. A new method of food preservation that is environmentally friendly is provided by NTP, a fourth state of matter that uses ionized gasses to destroy bacteria on fresh produce. There are two stages to the experiment. During the first stage, tomatoes are treated with NTP at different power levels and times: 5 kv 1 min, 5 kv 2 min, 5 kv 5 min,15 kv 5 min, 15 kv 10 min and 20 kv 5 min. Then, to determine the ideal power level and time for plasma treatment, 56 tomatoes are analyzed visually and by using colorimeter.In the second phase, destructive and non-destructive analyses are conducted using the selected power level and time from the first phase. In both the control and treatment groups, the non-destructive analyses include disease incidence, taking pictures, color changes and the destructive analysis includes Total soluble solids (TSS), firmness, pH, total lycopene content, and total phenol content.