Annual Report - IHBT

CSIR-IHBT Annual Report 2010-11Developing formulation for improvement of food quality by lowering the levelof reactive oxygen species (Funded by Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India)Free radical scavengers viz., superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and ascorbate peroxidase(APX) were developed into formulations to increase the shelf-life of food products. Application ofthe SOD based formulation reduced the spoilage/scalding of ripe tomato fruits. The formulationwas found to be effective in maintaining the lycopene content in tomato, and beta-carotene andchlorophyll content in spinach under low as well as high humidity storage conditions. In case oftomato, application of SOD along with CAT was found to be more effective in maintaining thenutritional quality.15