The Effect of Modified Atmosphere Packaging on the Shelf-life of Greenhouse-grown Tomato

In the present study, packaging of a greenhouse-grown tomato on the culture medium containing 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100% compost tea under modified atmosphere: MA (88%N2 + 8%CO2 + 4%O2) in polyethylene and nanosilicon-polyethylene bags was studied at 5°C for 30 days. Several quality parameters such as moisture content, pH, total soluble solids (TSS), titratable acidity (TA), Vitamin C content, texture, and respiration rate were evaluated after 0, 10, 20, and 30 days of storage. Data were then analyzed using three-factor (i.e. substrate, packaging film, and storage time) completely randomized design with three replicates by SPSS software. Results showed that in term of substrate, the treatments containing compost tea had a significant effect on the characteristics of tomato in comparison with substrate without compost tea. However, the different levels of compost tea did not show the same results for all experiments. In term of storage time, most of the characteristics had a decreasing trend; however, they were in the defined standard domain for these properties. In term of the type of film, nano film was superior to polyethylene film. These findings confirmed the extension shelf life and maintain the quality of growing tomatoes on the substrate containing compost tea packaged under MA in a nanosilicon-polyethylene film for one month.