Sustainable Post-Harvest Processing: Effect of Ozone Treatment on Microbial Decontamination and Nutritional Preservation in Fresh Tomatoes

Tomato is a widely consumed horticultural commodity due to its nutrient abundance, however, it is prone to microbial contamination that leads to foodborne diseases. Traditional preservation methods often lead to nutrient loss and may even generate carcinogenic by-products. This study explores ozone treatment as an alternative approach to address these issues associated with traditional processing methods. Here, the effect of certain ozone treatment parameters, viz. ozone concentration, treatment temperature, and exposure time on tomato's microbial population and other quality parameters were evaluated. The experiment was conducted using gaseous ozone at three levels of ozone concentration (0.3, 0.6, 0.9 mg/L), treatment temperature (10, 20, 30 degrees C), and exposure time (5, 10, 15 min). Furthermore, optimization of the study was carried out by employing response surface methodology (RSM). The optimized parameters obtained were 0.9 mg/L concentration, 10 degrees C temperature, and 11.7 min. The findings indicated that ozone treatment reduced surface microbial flora from 5.57 to 2.96 log cfu/ml, while no notable alterations were observed in the other studied physiochemical properties following ozonation.