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Improving nutritional quality of unripe tomato through fermentation by a consortium of yeast and lactic acid bacteria.

BACKGROUND
Portugal is one of the main producers of industrial tomato and tomato paste, an important intermediate ingredient used in many added-value foods. The tomato processing industry rigorously selects the fruits by colour during mechanical harvest, picking only completely ripe fruits to produce high quality tomato paste. The latest available data shows that about 1.12x108 kg year-1 of non-red/not-ripe tomatoes are left in the field, representing a major side product/field residue with great impact on the environment and for tomato producers.


RESULTS
The aim of the work was to use fermentation by a consortium of yeast and lactic acid bacteria to improve the nutritional quality of unripe tomato paste. A consortium of Lactobacillus plantarum, Leuconostoc mesenteroides and Kluyveromyces marxianus was selected, producing an acidic paste with olive-like flavours after four days of fermentation. Nutritional characterization revealed a significant improvement (p<0.05) in the content of ascorbic acid and antioxidant potential. In addition, UHPLC-MS/MS analysis showed that the fermented green tomato paste content in glycoalkaloid α-tomatine represents no hazard to the consumer.


CONCLUSION
Therefore, the obtained fermented green tomato paste can be further used to produce new food products, such as salad dressings and sauces. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.