Effect of industrial processing upon organic and conventional tomatoes: evaluation of quality and nutritional characteristics

• Published in: Acta horticulturae no. 971; pp. 59 - 69
• Main Authors: Sandei, L, Vadalà, R, Pirondi, S, De Sio, F, Zaccardelli, M, Scelza, R, Adamo, P, Rao, M.A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: International Society for Horticultural Science 2013
• Subjects: antioxidants; bioactive properties; integrated pest management; nutritive value; organic production; processing technology; tomato puree; tomatoes
• ISSN: 0567-7572
• DOI: 10.17660/ActaHortic.2013.971.4

The increasing consumer's awareness about direct correlation existing among food and health and the contamination problems coming from some foodstuffs, have recently created a rising demand for food that the consumers perceive as "natural and unadulterated". For these reasons the importance of the organic agriculture is growing. The aim of this work was to evaluate, with particular attention to the bioactive compounds, the quality of two organic processed tomato products (tomato puree and whole peeled tomatoes), with the quality of non organic products (integrated pest management), industrially processed with conventional techniques by means of semi-industrial pilot plants. Referring to the first year of a 24-month research project (BioPomNutri www.biopomnutri.it), qualitative and nutritional characteristics have been analysed and show significant differences in the antioxidant content both for fresh and processed products obtained from organic farming and from integrated farming.