Use of factorial experimental design for analyzing the effect of storage conditions on color quality of sun- dried tomatoes

Color of sun-dried tomato is an important quality criteria and color stability of sun dried tomatoes is affected by storage conditions such as temperature, time and packaging type. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects storage time, storage temperature and packaging type on color stability of sun-dried tomatoes by using factorial experimental design. In this study, the 2 3 factorial design was used to represent mathematical relationship between the storage conditions and color values (L and a/b) and used to verify whether or not factor variables of storage conditions are effective on color. Results in experimental model showed that all factors had negative effects on the color values which indicated the reducing stability of color. The main effect was found to be the time having the highest coefficient (-3.3 for L and -0.12 for a/b) in design models and storage temperature was found to be the least effective factor. Design model and response surface plots revealed that storage temperature could be kept around 20°C for 9 months and storing under vacuum packaging should be selected to reduce color losses for the safe storage conditions.