Impact of pulsed light treatments and storage time on the texture quality of fresh-cut tomatoes

The effect of pulsed light (PL) treatments at fluences of 4, 6 or 8 J cm(-2) on microbial growth, weight loss, pectinmethyl esterase (PME) and polygalacturonase (PG) activities of fresh-cut tomatoes was evaluated through 20 days of storage at 5 degrees C. Additionally, a pair-wise comparison test was assayed to determine whether potential consumers could detect differences between untreated and PL-treated samples. Microbial counts of PL-treated tomato slices were up to 2 Log CFU g lower than those on untreated samples over storage. Fresh-cut tomatoes exhibited slight firmness decrements, changes in the pectinolytic enzymes and increased weight losses over the storage. However, sensory evaluation did not reveal significant differences over at least 10 days. In summary, PL-treatments showed to be effective to reduce the microbial growth with a low impact on the physical quality of fresh-cut tomatoes. Industrial relevance: PL-treatments are proposed as a non-thermal strategy to increase the safety of fresh-cut commodities. In spite of their non-thermal nature, these treatments may have a photothermal effect, which could be deleterious to the product quality and shelf-life. This study contributes to the understanding of PL and its impact on the physical quality of fresh-cut tomatoes, thus helping to identify the range of conditions that can be industrially applied without causing major texture damage on the treated product.