Quality assessment of commercial tomato paste in Kurdistan region of Iraq: Implications for agripreneurship and market standards
Abstract
A study was conducted to compare the physiochemical properties of various popular tomato paste brands (TP). The canned tomato paste samples were procured from local markets in Sulaimani, Kurdistan-Iraq, during the year 2023-2024. The physiochemical composition of six tomato paste samples, representing different brands (TP1, TP2, TP3, TP4, TP5, and TP6), was assessed. The analyzed parameters included such as pH level, titratable acidity (TA) %, total solids (T.S) %, oBrix, moisture content %, total sugar, and ash %. The results showed that the pH values spanned from 4.14 (TP2) to 4.377 (TP3) brands, while the titratable acidity ranged between 1.34% and 2.41%. The TP3 brand had the highest total solids (34.95%) and the lowest moisture content (65.05%), whereas TP5 had the lowest total solids (28.64%) and the highest moisture content (71.36%). Moreover, the maximum Brix and total sugar were noted with TP4 (29.26) but total sugar in TP6 (1.38%), and the minimum Brix was recorded from TP5 (26.50) but total sugar in TP3 (0.92%). Ash content, indicating mineral content the Ash in tomato paste were indicated by using Furnace at 600 oC, the TP6 brand was the highest level of ash about 5.20%, but the lowest level in TP5 (3.47%). These results indicated that tomato paste was safe to consumption. This study helps to raise consumer awareness and offers useful insights for improving local tomato paste production to enhance product quality, support the local businesses, and benefit of both the producers and buyers economically.
Keywords:
Economic benefits, Market standards, Physicochemical analysis, Tomato paste compositionDownloads
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