Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Journal of Stored Products Research, cilt.115, 2026 (SCI-Expanded)
In recent years, the tomato drying industry has been suffering due to conventional methods. These methods cause deterioration in color and nutritional properties. Therefore, there is a need to integrate innovative and advanced combined methods into the drying industry. In this study, three different tomato varieties (KG-267, Fullet, and Red Sky), widely cultivated for the drying industry, were subjected to six different drying methods (open-sun, greenhouse, convective oven (80 °C), microwave (300 W), hybrid (microwave-assisted convective drying: 200 W + 60 °C) and lyophilizer), each applied to three tomato varieties with three replicates per treatment. Drying kinetics were determined and color parameters, crude protein, ash and oil contents, fatty acid compositions, carotene, lycopene, ascorbic acid, mineral contents, flavonoids, total phenolics, and antioxidant activity were investigated. Jena & Das model showed the best fitting performance with the R2 values of 0.9966, 0.9971 and 0.9975 for KG-267, Fullet, and Red Sky, respectively. The greatest a∗ values for the inner and outer surfaces were found in freeze drying. While freeze drying was found to be prominent for total phenolics and antioxidant activity; microwave, hybrid, and freeze drying were found to be prominent for oil, ash, lycopene, carotene, and ascorbic acid parameters. Convective drying increased oleic and linoleic acid contents. Besides low drying temperatures, microwave, hybrid, and freeze drying yielded higher mineral contents. Although there were differences in tomato drying processes with the variety, freeze, microwave, and hybrid drying could be recommended to preserve the nutritional properties of tomatoes.