Enhancing flavor of Tomatoes-Modified packing house practice

Tomato is one of the most liked vegetables, its use in many preparations and as a salad component being universal. In many diets and customary eating it is consumed almost every day across the world. Besides being a nutritious food, it also enriches flavors of many cooked foods and is a standard component of a good salad. No wonder the tomato paste industry is well established, catering to the needs of millions of consumers who find it is a convenient product with many application potential. A curious question many people find it difficult to answer is whether tomato is a fruit or a vegetable? As its sugar content is very low, unlike that in fruits, tomato is legally classified as a vegetable but still many people consider it as a fruit. What does a consumer expect from tomato? The crisp texture, attractively smooth appearance, intense color, juiciness and mild flavor. In contrast the tomato industry from growers to handlers, distributors and processors look for other more important qualities which include hard fruit resistant to damage during storage and transportation, longer shelf life and higher solid contents. Interestingly tomato production is concentrated in China and India, both together accounting for more than 30% of the global production of 170 million tons per year and therefore development of new varieties with better characteristics and yield is rather limited in these countries. In contrast advance countries like the Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland lead the productivity race with average productivity in the range of 430 to 480 tons per hectare. The path breaking research in evolving a genetically modified variety called FlarSavr took place in the US which was a dream come true for the industry though consumers never accepted this GM product.in nineteen nineties. Almost 75% of the tomato produced is consumed in the fresh form which reflects the importance of delivering farm fresh tomatoes to the consumer with least time delay and minimum damage. According to a group of scientists working in the US commercially marketed tomato does not possess good flavor because of the practices followed by the industry which do not allow the metabolic system in the crop to function and generate optimum flavor. A new approach is being suggested to modify the handling practices that will enhance the flavor very significantly. Read further below:  

"The distinct flavor of tomatoes is due to a cocktail of chemicals produced by the fruits as they ripen, but, according to the team that includes the USDA, the Agricultural Research Service, and the University of Florida, conventional storage methods inhibit these flavors. If tomatoes seem more flavorsome when bought from a farm stand, that's because they're being sold in the ideal condition – fully ripe and immediately after picking. However, commercially grown tomatoes need to be shipped hundreds, if not thousands of miles to reach market along with delays in packing and unpacking. Shipping ripe tomatoes over any distances risks unacceptable levels of spoilage, so the tomatoes are picked green, treated with ethylene gas to induce ripening, and then chilled for shipping. According to team leader Jinhe Bai, this chilling prevents flavor compounds, such as 6-methyl-5-hepten-2-one, 2-methylbutanal, and 2-phenylethanol from forming and the tomatoes end up with a watery taste. To avoid this, the team added an extra step. Instead of sending Florida-grown green tomatoes straight on to chilling, the team plunged them into 125° F (52° C) water for five minutes, then cooled them to room temperature before a final chilling to between 41° and 55° F (5° and 13° C), which is the standard shipping temperature. Compared to a control group, the team found that the treated tomatoes had more smell and flavor, as well as higher levels of flavor compounds. According to Bai, this is due to the heat treatment regulating certain ripening enzymes and activating the production of a protein that makes the tomatoes tolerant of cell decay. "Chilling suppresses production of oxygen, nitrogen, and sulfur-containing heterocyclic compounds, ketones, alcohols and aldehydes, including 13 important aroma components of tomato flavor," says Bai."But hot water-treated fruit actually produced higher concentrations of these important aroma contributors, even with subsequent chilling." The team is currently testing the technique at various stages of ripeness to see how it affects flavor compound production. Bai says the next step is to determine which method is the most effective before offering it to food processing firms. In addition, they're trying alternatives to hot water, such as methyl salicylate (wintergreen oil), which is an anti-fungal fumigant, and 1-methylcyclopropene when the tomatoes are at the slightly riper green/pink stage to make the fruit more tolerant to cell decay when at higher storage temperatures."

Even to day why are people preferring to buy wine ripened tomato or directly from farm gates offering fresh ripened crops? Simply because these crops possess much better flavor compared to that bought from a supermarket. As explained by the authors of the above study, development of flavor from a cocktail of chemicals present in tomato depends on temperature. The commercial practice, heavily dependent on chilling to low temperatures for long distance transportation in the distribution chain to prevent physical damage, does not allow the inherent enzyme systems to act on the dormant precursors for conversion into the characteristic flavorful substances. The heat shock method developed by them is claimed to be able to "wake up" the metabolic activity which sets of the process of generating flavor substances. Since the method is very simple there should not be any logistical problem to incorporate this step into the currently practiced protocol. Hot water treatment has the additional advantage of sanitizing the product to some extent by killing some of the undesirable microbes. Way back in nineteen sixties a similar heat treatment was developed in India for mangoes for reducing microbial spoilage during the long process of ripening which takes more than a week. If the new findings are confirmed and accepted by the industry there could be a dramatic increase in the flavor quality of tomatoes consumed world over.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

Do we buy foods in the market because of their color? It appears so!

Quality of a food is manifested in many dimensions that include appearance, flavor and nutrition. It is said that consumers first "eat" a food through their eyes by perceiving what is attractive in appearance without realizing whether it is safe or healthy for him. The consequences are the deliberate or some time ignorant action by the processors in adding colors of various hues to the foods they make for attracting them or using inedible mineral oils to give them a gloss. Whether the fact that the colors added are permitted or banned probably never enters the mind of the consumer. Invariably unscrupulous food handlers, be it the processor or trader or the farmer, use these unnatural substances to camouflage low quality or blemishes or non-uniform color and fleece the customers by charging a premium. India has a dubious record of harboring such unscrupulous elements in great numbers with apparently no resistance or control at any point of the supply chain. Probably the tortoise like speed with which adultrators and fraudsters are hauled up and punished naturally encourage the fraud industry to indulge more and more into such heinous activities. Here is a report from a town in Tamilnadu which reveals how even every day foods like boondi, bhujia etc are colored bright by using bright colors which are not permitted by the law of the country.    

"The Food Safety and Standards Act 2006 clearly states that 'unsafe food' is an article in which there is 'presence of any colouring matter or preservatives other than that specified for its category' or if the 'article is being coloured to make it appear better than it really is'. "This point was included in the Act because long-term consumption of such artificial colours is harmful to health, because they often contain colours made of chemicals," said Kathiravan. While colour is permitted to be added to ice-creams, lolly pops, jelly crystal and North Indian sweets, it is banned in South Indian sweets and savouries. "However, in some cases, approved artificial colour is allowed," he clarified. Though food makers admit that colours do not play a part in the taste, they find it hard to change the public's mindset. "They are used to seeing specific foods in specific colours," said Vivekanand Natraj of Moti Mahal Delux. "So we have tried to work around this by using Kashmiri Chilli which gives the red colour but is not as spicy as our local chillies. We use beetroot to add colour to vinegar soaked onion, so the difference is just 10%," he said. "Even after all this we have irate customers upset over the colour of food served or purchased," said a staff member at Nellai Muthu Vilas Sweets."

World over artificial colors are being banned one by one after their safety credentials were doubted and food processing industry progressively switched over to natural colors where ever color addition is unavoidable for technical reasons. The classical case is that of tomato ketchup in India and stout resistance by the industry to the ban of artificial colors to this product was over ruled resulting in breeding new varieties with more intense red color. This goes to show that under compelling situations food scientists can come out with alternatives for most of the chemical additives used in foods for aesthetic appeal. There are thousands of sweet meat shops in the country using unnecessary bright colors so that when these products are displayed openly or in glass cases, they can attract customers to these outlets. While use of color is absolutely unnecessary in any of our foods, if for any reasons they are to be used natural substances must be considered. Chilli, beetroots, annatto, safflower, curcumin etc are some of the natural sources from which colors are to day extracted with no taste or odor. In stead of depending on the government to protect him, consumer must be proactive in shunning such foods as part of a movement to punish those still using them. Though we can blame the governments for shirking their responsibility, in to day's India such blame game will have no effect at all as safety enforcement is yet to get the attention it deserves. 

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

DOES THE COLOR OF LABEL INFLUENCE CONSUMER CHOICE?

Industry seems to have struck a goldmine in green color which seems to be misleading the consumer that products  printed with nutrition information against a green background are healthier than others. Internationally green color is associated with cleanliness and consumers do show a tendency to believe all that has a green certification which symbolizes positive things, This a very disturbing finding and regulators need to have a closer look at this phenomenon to modify labeling rules in future. Here is a take on this new revelation.

"The color of the label is obviously irrelevant. But  green nutritional panels — which now adorn Snickers, M&M's, and other candies made by Mars – appear to fool shoppers into thinking they're buying something that's more healthful, according to a research paper published last month in the journal Health Communication". "Cornell University professor Jonathon Schuldt conducted experiments that found not only that green labels increase the perceived healthfulness of foods, but that such misunderstandings were particularly prevalent among those who place high importance on healthy eating. "The green calorie labels buffer relatively poor nutrition foods from appearing less healthful among those especially concerned with healthy eating," said Schuldt, who thinks it's high time that the government stepped in to bar such trickery. "As government organizations including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration consider developing a uniform front-of-package labeling system for the U.S. marketplace, these findings suggest that the design and color of the labels may deserve as much attention as the nutritional information they convey."

Probably more restrictions are needed regarding the color background the industry can use while printing nutrition information on the label. At present even a poison can be packed in green colored container with its attendant implications. If necessary use of green labels can be reserved for good products which are healthy and balanced based on scientific data. Already in countries like India green dots allowed to be printed on one corner of the label to denote that the contents do not contain any ingredients derived from animals. Similarly gren traffic signal type presentation is proposed in some countries to discriminate between healthy and not so healthy products. 

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com