THE EFFECT OF PEEL AND SEED REMOVAL ON THE PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF THE TOMATO FRUITS (SOLANUM LYCOPERSICUM L.)

Further to assessing the effect of the peel and seed removal, which are two procedures usually carried out either at home or within the processing industry, on the physical and chemical properties and on the content of bioactive compounds of the tomato fruits beloging to five Romanian varieties coming from the Buzau Station of Research and Development for Vegetable Farming (Kristinica, Darsirius, Florina, Hera and Andrada), the result was that both procedures brought forth significant losses of nutritional and physical-chemical properties to each grower. In the main, peeling was more harmful, as it caused a more pronounced drop of the hydrogen potential pH and of the content of dry substance (D.S. %). By comparison with the other varieties, a significant drop of the hydrogen potential after removing the peel was noticed at the Florina variety, namely from the 5.298 average value to the 4.758 one. At this variety we also noticed the modification of the dry substance content (D.S. %), i.e. from 6.275 to 5.570.