Abstract:
Tomato is a most popular and demanding vegetable grown in the tropics. The postharvest loss of tomato is
estimated to 40-60%, which eventually contributes to high market prices. There is a great potential to use instant
tomato powder in formulated drinks, baby foods, soups and other products. Therefore, a study was conducted to
produce tomato powders using foam mat drying, spray drying and vacuum drying and to evaluate the quality
characteristics of the tomato powder. A consumer preference test was conducted to determine the sensory attributes
of the reconstituted tomato juice and to compare the final product with the commercial products. The moisture
content of tomato powder ranged from 1.73 to3.57% on dry weight basis. The moisture content of the spray dried
powder was lower than that of foam mat dried powder. During drying, a significant reduction (p<0.05) in titratable
acidity of 23% and increase in pH of 0.62units after vacuum drying of tomato juice indicated that some acids were
lost due to evaporation during drying. The oxidative loss of ascorbic acid following vacuum drying was 22.7%
which was higher than following foam mat drying (11.6%) and spray drying (8.26%) with 70% Tomato solids +
30% Maltodextrin. Ready-to-serve (RTS) tomato nectars were prepared from fruit powders and were compared
with those prepared from fresh juice. Maltodextrin proved to be the effective additive, reducing the wall deposition
markedly and producing a product of acceptable flavour and with good free-flowing properties. The foam mat
drying is an expensive method to apply commercially, therefore, spray drying may be the best alternative for
producing tomato powder with good stability. Keywords: Physico-chemical qualities, maltodextrin, sensory
analysis, spray drying, tomato powder.
