Yield, quality, antioxidant and sensorial properties of diced tomato as affected by genotype and industrial processing in southern Italy.

Research was carried out on processing tomato in Southern Italy in order to compare four round-prismatic type hybrids oriented to diced produce (4420, Miceno, Nemabrix, Impact as a control). The hybrid Nemabrix attained the highest marketable yield (180.9 t ha–1), due to both the highest number of fruit per plant and their mean weight (103.7 and 70 g, respectively), and it was not signifi cantly different from the other genotypes in terms of processing effi ciency both as a total and along dicing chain (67.8% and 65.6%, respectively). Lycopene attained the highest concentration in Nemabrix (155 mg kg–1), and β–carotene was most concentrated in 4420 and Miceno (2.8 mg kg–1). Signifi cant differences arose between the genotypes with regard to the sensorial variables aspect, colour, taste, fi rmness, and fresh taste.