Assessing different tomato cultivars for dehydration suitability and selection of optimum dehydration technique

Five tomato cultivars namely, Pusa Rakshit, Punjab Ratta, Sel-60, 904113, 687094 were evaluated to assess the dehydration suitability on the basis of physico-chemical constituents of given tomato cultivars. On the basis of physico-chemical constituents and different drying characteristics, Pusa Rakshit was found to be more suitable for dehydration as it retained more lycopene content, titrable acidity, total phenol content, antioxidant activity and high dry matter as well as dehydration ratio compared to Punjab Ratta, Sel-60, 904113, 687094 cultivars. Similarly in case of drying method, microwave dryer (400W) was found good for drying selected tomato slices in comparison to vacuum drier and cabinet drier as it retained more nutritional attributes like lycopene content, acidity, total phenols, antioxidant activity and less browning in dehydrated tomato slices.