conomists love to say that there is no such thing as a free lunch. But the Chilean government agency responsible for school grants, Junta Nacional de Auxilio Escolar y Becas (JUNAEB), is an exception to the rule. During the school year, JUNAEB provides breakfast and lunch for 2 million children in primary and secondary public schools. In a developing country where about 14 percent of children u...

The homogeneity of analytical samples and the stability of pesticides during the sample processing of oranges and tomatoes were evaluated. The mean concentrations of 14C-labeled chlorpyrifos in analytical portions (subsamples) after processing show that homogeneity is dependent on sample type as well as the processing procedure. The homogeneity of analytical samples of tomatoes processed cryoge...

Food processing by-products are commonly used as feed ingredients for livestock. Wet tomato pulp is byproduct containing tomato seeds and skin residues and obtained during processing of tomatoes for paste, juice, ketchup etc. Tomato production in Turkey was around 10 million tons and approximately 3 million tons tomatoes were used for processing of tomatoes in 2010 [48]. During production of to...

THE TOMATO (Lycopersicon esculentum) is a New World plant, originally found in Peru and carried back to Spain from whence it quickly spread to Italy (pommidoro) and France, where it was known as the pomme d'amour and thought to have aphrodisiac properties (this is the first recorded confusion between the placebo effect and the tomato effectdescribed herein). By 1560, the tomato was becoming a s...

In this paper, we present a complete system to monitor the growth of tomatoes from images acquired in open fields. This is a challenging task because of the severe occlusion and poor contrast in the images. We approximate the tomatoes by spheres in the 3D space, hence by ellipses in the image space. The tomatoes are first identified in the images using a segmentation procedure. Then, the size o...

Salmonella enterica has been frequently linked to major foodborne disease outbreaks. The molecular mechanisms underlying this pathogen survival on the fresh fruit surface remain largely unexplored. In this study, the environmental factors that affect the survival of Salmonella strains on the surface of selected fruits were studied. Grape tomatoes (or cantaloupe peels) were inoculated in three s...

Firmness is an important aspect of the quality of fresh tomatoes. Its measurement is necessary for quality control, as well as for postharvest studies to develop procedures for preparation and handling of fresh-cut tomato slices. This study had two objectives, to determine how initial ripeness and cutting affect the textural changes in tomato tissue during storage and to develop a method for me...

The epidemiologic literature in the English language regarding intake of tomatoes and tomato-based products and blood lycopene (a compound derived predominantly from tomatoes) level in relation to the risk of various cancers was reviewed. Among 72 studies identified, 57 reported inverse associations between tomato intake or blood lycopene level and the risk of cancer at a defined anatomic site;...

Consumption of tomato products has been associated with decreased risk of some cancer types, and the tomato antioxidant, lycopene, is thought to play an important role in the observed health effects. In this study, four carotenoids, trans-lycopene, phytofluene, phytoene, and zeta-carotene, were quantified in tomato products. Samples of raw tomatoes, tomato juice after hot break scalder, and fin...

Dietary polyphenols are associated with a wide range of health benefits, protecting against chronic diseases and promoting healthy aging. Dietary polyphenols offer a complementary approach to the treatment of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs), a group of common chronic intestinal inflammation syndromes for which there is no cure. Tomato is widely consumed but its content of polyphenols is low....