Effect of Cold- and Hot-Break Heat Treatments on the Physicochemical Characteristics of Currant Tomato (Solanum pimpinellifolium) Pulp and Paste

Currant tomato (Solanum pimpinellifolium), an underutilized wild species of modern tomato, was investigated to determine the physicochemical properties and understand the effect of cold- and hot-break heat treatments on physicochemical characteristics. Moreover, a new Arrhenius-type equation was used to model the temperature-dependent viscosity of currant tomato pulp and paste. The currant tomato’s porosity, surface area, and lycopene content were 40.96 ± 0.84%, 663.86 ± 65.09 mm(2), and 9.79 ± 1.88 mg/100 g, respectively. Cold- and hot-break heat treatments had a significant (p < 0.05) effect on tomato pulp and paste color change (0.09 to 0.26; 0.19 to 1.96), viscosity (0.06 to 0.02 Pa.s; 0.85 to 0.37 Pa.s), and lycopene content (9.70 to 9.07 mg/100 g; 9.60 to 9.37 mg/100 g), respectively. An Arrhenius-type equation described the temperature-dependent viscosity of currant tomato pulp and paste with activation energy (E(a)) ranging from 7.54 to 11.72 kJ/mol and 8.62 to 8.97 kJ/mol, respectively. Principal component analysis (PCA) revealed a total of variance 99.93% in tomato pulp and paste as affected by the cold- and hot-break heat treatments. Overall, the findings may provide knowledge for design graders and process optimization to develop currant tomato-based products.