Kajian Penggunaan Kemasan Karton dan Peti Kayu terhadap Mutu Buah Tomat dalam Transportasi Darat

Abstract

Quality of horticultural products after harvest can not be increase but maintaining it is very important. Postharvest handling that appropriate is necessary to maintain product quality one of them is to make the packaging that can keep the fruit quality to be in a good condition during transportation process. The purpose of this research is to study effect of some packaging types and filler materials to decline in tomato fruit quality parameters and the degree of mechanical damage. The observations were conducted based on the physical quality parameters such as mechanical damage, weight loss, hardness, and total soluble solids. Physical quality parameters of tomatoes were observed before and after transportation simulation. Simulations was performed using a simulator table an amplitude of 2 cm and frequency of 2.75 Hz for 1 hours and an amplitude of 2.5 cm and frequency of 2.75 Hz for 3 hours. From the simulation results after transportation, tomatoes have the same quality changes in each treatment, the level of dissolved solids increases, the weight of tomatoes decreases (shrinkage of high weight), hardness decreased. The longer the simulation of transportation is increased the percentage of mechanical damage. The best packaging for the transport of tomatoes during transport is the treatment of packaging cardboard with a sheet of newspaper as filler material because it has the lowest level of mechanical damage, low hardness degradation, and shrinkage is relatively small weights.