Sensory evaluation of fresh tomato from conventional, integrated, and organic production

Few studies have evaluated the influence of long-term agricultural practices on the agronomic, nutritional, and sensory aspects of processing tomato fruit. This study was part of a six-year comparison trial of three production systems-organic, integrated, and conventional-within a horticultural crop rotation that included six different vegetables. The main objective of the present work was to study the influence of the agriculture production systems on certain sensory parameters of industrially processed tomatoes. Representative samples of fresh tomatoes from the field were prepared (diced) and kept frozen until the sensory evaluation date. Defrosted samples at room temperature were sent for testing to a trained panel to check for differences in aroma and taste. Conventional tomato samples were used as controls for a comparison test against the organic and integrated treatments. Coded samples distributed randomly were set for the blind testing sessions. The data collected from six agriculture experiments were analyzed by a sensory evaluation computer program. Analysis of variance did not detect any significant differences among the three farming system treatments for any of the sensory attributes included in this study. Under the agronomic experimental conditions and sensory evaluation methods used in this experiment, any difference in aroma or taste has been detected from the organic or integrated farming systems in comparison with the conventional method used in SW Spain to produce tomatoes for industrial processing.