Furfural Content in Tomatoes and Tomato Products

Non-enzymatic browning has been considered as one of the major causes of quality and colour loss during the processing and storage of food products. Some furanic compounds were produced from the degradation of sugars and ascorbic acid by heating. One of the principal degradation product of the hydrolysis of hexoses and pentoses is furfural, heterocyclic compound which is accepted as an indicator of flavour changes. In this study, furfural content in fresh tomatoes samples and tomato products was determined. Furfural was analysed by manual headspace solid-phase microextraction (SPME) technique coupled with gas chromatography (GC-FID and GC-MS) in samples representing 12 tomato cultivars (grown for a specific purpose of industrial processing), and also in 10 different brands of tomato juice, 15 brands of tomato puree, 15 brands of double concentrated tomato paste, 10 brands of canned diced tomatoes and 15 different brands of canned whole tomatoes. Furfural was not identified in samples of fresh tomatoes, while in the samples of tomato products was identified. Determined area ratio of furfural in tomato products ranged from 0.042 to 0.091. The highest content of furfural was determined in samples of tomato juice, followed by samples of canned whole tomatoes, double concentrated tomato paste, tomato puree and canned diced tomatoes.