Nutritional and Sensory Quality of Prepared Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) Leather

Tomato has a limited shelf life and is highly perishable due to its high moisture content. As fruit leather, is a traditional food of Nepal, it can be beneficial to move towards value addition and diversification of the traditional product. The main aim was to analyze the nutritional values and phytochemicals of the tomato pulp and prepared leather, and sensory evaluation of prepared tomato leather. Five samples A, B, C, D and E were prepared with 80:20, 72.5:27.5, 95:5, 87.5:12.5 and 65:35 fruit pulp: sugar ratio respectively. Analysis of raw tomato pulp and all the five samples was performed. Sensory quality of the product sample A was found superior to that of other samples but chemical and phytochemical properties of product sample C was found superior than that of other prepared samples. Therefore, we had two best products, in terms of sensory properties and in terms of nutritional properties. The best product on the basis of nutrients (sample C) had acidity (%), TSS (°Bx), pH, total ash content (%), crude protein (%), crude fat (%), crude fiber (%), carbohydrate (%), vitamin C (mg/100 g), total energy (Kcal/100 g), TPC (mg GAE/g of dry extract), TFC (mg QE/g of dry extract), DPPH scavenging activity (% of inhibition) and lycopene content (mg/100 g) was found to be 3.70.1, 20 ± 0.02, 3 ± 0.1, 2.30 ± 0.05, 2.69 ± 0.04, 0.87 ± 0.02, 5.46 ± 0.01, 69.68 ± 0.02, 25.17 ± 1.25, 297.31 ± 0.01, 85.35 ± 0.02, 65.39 ± 0.02, 59.23 ± 0.03 and 98.57 ± 0.02 respectively. A tasty and nutritious product of tomato, leather can be prepared which can be more appealing to the consumer.