Mediterranean long storage tomato as a source of novel products for the agrifood industry: Nutritional and technological traits

Long storage tomato is a crop traditionally cultivated under no irrigation in Southern Italy. Recently, great interest has been directing towards this crop, as a source of novel products for industrial purposes. A research has been conducted to assess some nutritional and technological traits which affect the fruit suitability to processing, in two Sicilian landraces ('Pizzottello di Montallegro' and 'Locale di Filicudi') of long storage tomato, compared to the Hy. 'Brigade' of processing tomato (Dry and Irrigated). High total solids (>103 g/kg), total soluble solids (>8Brix) and reducing sugars (>53 g/kg), mostly greater than those of the control, reveal the tastiness of long-storage tomatoes. These were slightly poorer in lycopene than the control (both dry and irrigated) but richer in polyphenols (≥0.12 mg/g) and vitamin C (≥0.59 mg/g), as also revealed by the antioxidant activity (DPPH>80%). Degradative enzymatic activities (pectin methyl esterase and polygalacturonase) were the lowest in 'Pizzottello di Montallegro', proving a fruit susceptibility to softening even lower than control. In turn, low polyphenol oxidase activity in 'Locale di Filicudi' indicates a great aptitude of fruits to retain the nutritional value.