Abstract: In order to improve the quality of tomatoes during storage,   Liaoyuanduoli   tomatoes were chosen as the experimental materials to explore the effect of calcium-spraying treatment on the quality of tomatoes during cold storage period. The results indicated that spraying treatment of tomatoes with calcium agents resulted in the decrease of the firmness, soluble solid contents, reducing sugar content, titratable acid content and free amino acids in tomatoes during cold storage. The treatment with calcium pantothenate could result in the slowest decrease of tomato firmness, which was 14.33 kg/cm2 for tomato firmness at the end of storage period. The decline of other indices revealed the slowest decline in the tomatoes treated by humic acid calcium. The red-converting index showed an increasing trend and the best red-converting efficiency resulted from the treatment of humic acid calcium, which revealed 19% higher than the control. The lycopene was up to 4.55 mg/100 g in the humic acid-treated tomatoes. In general, humic acid calcium treatment has multiple obvious advantages.

Key words: tomato, lycopene, humic acid, refrigeration