3.4. Effect on tomato qualities
The influence of harvesting the mature green tomato fruit and
chilling during four weeks on the quality of the final product, the
Micro-Tom red fruit, was evaluated.
3.4.1. Color
The color parameters (L*, a*, b*, Hue and Chroma) obtained with
Tomato Analyzer 3.0 were also analyzed to evaluate the influence
of ripening conditions on color. Red fruits were clustered in Group
2 (Roff and Rch) and group 1 (only Ron) (see Table 2). All Ron parameters,
except b*, were significantly different from the values of red
fruits ripened off the vine after cold storage or not (Fig. 2). Hierarchical
cluster analysis (Euclidean distance) was conducted for each
cluster or group formed by PCA analyses (Fig. 3, Table 2), in order
to identify the formation of subgroups that show the influence of
different ripening conditions on color (Fig. S2). Orange fruits (group
3: Oon, Ooff and Och) did not differ according to whether they were
ripened.Also, red fruits ripened on the shelf with cold storage or not
(group 2: Roff and Rch) were not distinguished by this test. By contrast,
among the green fruits (group 4b) there is a clear distinction
between those that were stored at 4 ◦C (Gch) and recently harvested (Gon). The Gon fruits presented more negative a* values and greater
Hue and Chroma values than after cold storage, indicating lower
proportion of green color and more paleness in the Gch. Among the
yellow fruits (group 4a in Table 2), the fruits that have been cold
storage (Ych) formed a subgroup that differed from the ripened on
the plant (Yon) and on the shelf (Yoff).