ABSTRACT
The tomato is the second largest vegetable crop in dollar value in the United States; its fresh market production value was $1.16 billion in 2000 [1]. The United States produced 3.77 billion lb of fresh market tomatoes in 2000. In the 1950s tomato yields were relatively low (8900 lb per acre in 1955 vs. 30,600 1b per acre in 2000) and shelf life was very short. Advances in agrotechniques, genetics, and breeding have led to dramatic increases in both yield and shelf life. The latter resulted from the introduction of ripening inhibitor genes that adversely affect the flavor [2]. Consumers have been complaining about the lack of flavor in commercially available fresh tomatoes for several years now. One well-known reason is that many tomatoes are harvested green and induced to ripen by the use of ethylene before marketing. Although sensory characteristics such as color, texture, and sugar-acid content are important factors in consumer acceptance, the aroma content is considered a major quality trait for which a batch of tomatoes will be accepted or rejected. One objective of the present study was to determine the most important contributors to fresh tomato aroma. Another objective was to investigate the relationship between sensory perception and instrumental analysis. We selected two highly accepted and two less accepted tomato cultivars and analyzed their volatile flavor composition to find out whether the reason for consumer preference or rejection can be related to particular flavor compounds and their concentrations.
