Deliverable A.1 of Action A.1
Study evaluation of the quantities of tomato production and the related waste in different European geographical areas including an evaluation of the periodicity of the tomato waste production
The tomato is the edible, red fruit of the nightshade Solanum lycopersicum. In Action A.1 we show an overview about tomato: origin of species, tomato crop spreading in the world and the adaptation to a wide variety of climates, characteristics of the tomato plant, morphological and structural characteristics of tomato fruits, phytonutrients in tomato and tomatoderived
products, composition of tomato residues (in particular skins and peels). An overview about tomato production is proposed as fresh and processed good in the world, focusing on annual turnover of the top five tomato producers China, India, the USA, Turkey and Egypt, which represent about the 60% of the world tomato production. In commercial terms, exchange volumes
and commercial results also position the tomato processing sector among the main players of the European food industry. The main European producing countries are Spain Italy, Holland, France and Belgium. A brief survey has been carried out about tomato residues availability resulting by the production of major subcategories of processing tomato products, that are Peeled tomatoes, passata, crushed tomato, tomato concentrate, tomato juice. Because during tomato industrial processing, nearly 2.5 to 3.5% of fresh tomatoes ends up as waste solids (mainly skin and seeds) and, the refuse are an additional cost for companies productive because of the disposal processes, besides the waste are a source of recoverable chemical compounds. For these reasons, today, besides tomato waste common use as fertilizer or for animal feed, there are a lot of researches about re-use of tomato residues as food additives, in the production of ethanol, biodegradable plastic, biogas and other products for consumer goods.