Determination of Engineering Properties of Some Fresh Tomato Cultivars Grown in Nigeria

Abstract

In this paper, some engineering properties of three varieties of tomato cultivars (chico, roma and cherry) were determined from compression test. The fruits were at two stages (turing and fully ripe) of maturity and grouped into two (small and big) sizes. A standard compression testing machine, the Testometric Universal Testing Machine (UTM) was used to apply loads on the samples. The properties determined were, force (load), energy absorbed, stress, Young modulus and deformation. The effects of variety, maturity stages and sizes of the fruits on these properties were investigated by subjecting the data to statistical analyses. The results show that the main effects variety, stage of maturity and sizes of the fruits were highly significant at 5 % level of probability. The tuming stage of maturity seems to have the greater capacity for taking elastic or recoverable deformation than the fully ripe samples. The results also show that the cherry variety is the weakest among the three varieties studied. The data obtained can be of great assistance in reducing mechanical damage to this produce especially during handling.