Rheological Behavior of Tomato Fruits Affected By Various Loads Under Storage Conditions

Rheological properties of fruits and vegetables are of interest to plant physiologists, horticulturalists, agricultural engineers and food engineers, due to different causes. the rheological properties are relevant to several aspects of the study of these materials, including the causes and extent of damage during harvesting, transport and storage; the human perception of product quality. The rheological constants of the four element Burgers model when tomatoes were subjected to various fixed loads (stresses) on the main dimensions of the fruits were investigated .The rheological constants, K1(instantaneous elasticity, N/mm), K2 (retarded elasticity, N/mm), C1 (free viscous element,N.min/mm and C2 (retarded viscous element, N.min/mm) were decreased significantly with storage time.