Morphological, mechanical and chemical aspects of processing tomatoes produced in Brazilian savanna

Abstract The aim of this study was to determine the physical and chemical characteristics of ten processing tomatoes cultivars (H9992, H9553, U2006, N901, E8755, BA5445, F170, HMX, AP533 and CVR) produced in the city of Morrinhos, Goiás State, Brazil, in order to assess the fruit quality and contribute with more subsidies for choosing tomato cultivars for processing by industries. H9992, H9553, N901, BA5445 and HMX genotypes have smaller fruits (length, volume and mass) and higher mechanical resistance of the fruit pulp. H9992, HMX and F170 genotypes also have higher resistance of fruit peel, indicating that these materials are less susceptible to losses during mechanical harvesting and transportation to the industry. Regarding the L* and b* parameters, the less yellow and darker H9992, H9553 and U2006 cultivars are the most recommended for the industry, which seeks genotypes with higher concentrations of lycopene and less carotenes. Processing tomatoes cultivar HMX, H9992, H9553 and U2006 have higher soluble solids, and potential to enable greater industrial efficiency. Therefore, cultivars H9992 and HMX standing out positively in most of the evaluated parameters: have smaller fruits (length, volume and mass), higher mechanical resistance of the fruit pulp, greater resistance of the fruit peel, higher soluble solids content. Therefore, new genetic material that presented better characteristics for industrialization is HMX.