Quality characteristics of typical canned cherry tomatoes obtained with direct mechanical sowing of tomato plants on biodegradable mulch film

Nowadays, in a constantly evolving industrial worldwide market, it is essential to aim for innovation in holistic way, while preserving both quality characteristics and high sustainability of the vegetables crops in order to highlight its high dietetic benefits. All the stakeholders of the whole food supply chain have to contribute to this approach with the common objective of providing innovative environmentally friendly solutions maintaining high quality standards of production. Among the main players, the agricultural producers aim to increase yields’ and crop’s quality in a sustainable way, and at the same time, food industry need to obtain processed products increasingly rich in quality and bio-actives substances that contributes to the consumer’s choices and their healthy diet. The aim of this work was to evaluate how the use of direct sowing on biodegradable materials in an experimental field can influence the final agronomic production yield and its influence on the main qualitative and nutritional parameters of processed cherry tomatoes. A typical cherry tomato cultivated in south of Italy was mechanically sown on biodegradable mulch film compared with seedlings mechanically transplanted on the same film. Cherry tomatoes were harvested, agronomically evaluated and then directly processed with hot filling techniques (by means of SSICA semi-industrial pilot plant) into canned cherry tomatoes. Fresh cherry tomatoes and their processed products were characterized in their main quality parameters (°Brix, colour, pH, sugars, acidity, polyphenols, lycopene, etc.) and, at the same time, the technological industrial yield obtained were evaluated. Overall data showed that the innovative sowing and mulching treatments used in the field did not significantly affect the quality of the canned products obtained.