FAILURE MECHANISMS OF TOMATO PERICARP TISSUE SUGGESTED BY LARGE AND SMALL DEFORMATION TESTS

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Abstract
Failure mechanisms of tomato pericarp tissue were investigated by measuring puncture and viscoelastic properties of tissue from fruit stored at 22C (nonchilled) or 5C (chilled) for 28 days, or at 5C for 15 days prior to transfer to 22C for an additional 13 days (prechilled) to facilitate ripening. The puncture properties of tissue remained unchanged during 28 days of chilling. However, tissue shear strength and rigidity increased with chilling, as demonstrated by increases in storage and loss moduli, and decreases in oscillatory strain and the loss tangent. Puncture failure force, failure firmness and storage and loss moduli of nonchilled and prechilled tissues decreased to low, constant levels by 12 and 9 days, respectively. Simultaneously, pseudoplastic and failure strains and oscillatory strain each increased. These data suggest that the loss of tissue compressive strengths and transition in the dominant mode of failure from cell relaxation and rupture to cell debonding occurred at a faster rate during ripening of prechilled (i.e., chill‐injured) compared to nonchilled fruit.