Changes in the quality in tomato fruit due to home-scale freezing

The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of home-scale freezing in the quality of tomato fruit cultivated in field conditions, in Romanian west area.Freezing is one of the oldest and most widely used methods of vegetables preservation.Tomatoes were analyzed fresh and stored frozen in domestic freezer at -180C for 2-6 months until analysis. Tomatoes were analyzed regarding moisture, sugar, lycopene content,ascorbic acid, phenolic compounds and total antioxidant capacity. Most important losses due to 6 months home-scale freezing were recorded for lycopene content (47%) followed by vitamin C content (20%), total antioxidant capacity (16%) and phenolic compounds content (13%). The freezing process has no to much effect on the nutritional compounds but for the best quality, use the tomato fruit within short time