Acta Agriculturae Zhejiangensis ›› 2025, Vol. 37 ›› Issue (12): 2583-2592.DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.1004-1524.20240803

• Food Science • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Construction of a quality evaluation system for fresh-eating tomatoes based on Delphi method and analytic hierarchy process

WANG Tonglin1(), SHAO Zhiyong1, NIE Zhixing1, GUO Saisai1, LIU Lihong2, WANG Qiaomei2, ZHENG Jirong1,*()   

  1. 1. Hangzhou Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou 310024, China
    2. Department of Horticulture, Zhejiang University/Key Laboratory of Horticultural Plant Growth and Quality Control, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Hangzhou 310058, China
  • Received:2024-09-12 Online:2025-12-25 Published:2026-01-09

Abstract:

The current fresh-eating tomato market is dominated by varieties with attractive appearance due to breeding objectives heavily focused on aesthetics and storage capacity, resulting in tomatoes with hard flesh, bland taste, and limited nutritional value. This issue stems from the lack of a comprehensive quality evaluation system. To address this, the present study introduces an innovative strategy for constructing an evaluation system, which has proven effective in fields such as clinical medicine and education, to comprehensively and scientifically assess tomato quality. A systematic review of the definition and components of fresh tomato quality was conducted first. Based on the Delphi method, two rounds of consultations were held with 27 domestic experts in tomato breeding and quality research, leading to the establishment of an evaluation framework for fresh tomatoes that included three quality dimensions (flavor quality, nutritional quality, and commercial quality) and 15 quality indicators. The active response rates for the two rounds of expert consultations were 85.2% and 86.0%, respectively, with an average expert authority coefficient of 0.9, indicating the experts’ high attention and professional authority towards this study. Using the analytic hierarchy process, weights were assigned to the 15 quality indicators [sweet and sour taste: 8.16%, aroma: 5.91%, umami: 6.47%, negative taste: 7.49%, juice content: 6.43%, the degree of fruit digest residue: 6.47%, texture: 6.41%, total soluble solid content: 6.87%, carotenoid content: 6.82%, vitamin C(VC) content: 6.58%, firmness: 6.15%, fruit shape: 7.24%, fruit glossiness: 6.92%, fruit color uniformity: 6.59%, and sepals presence and size status: 5.49%]. This study provides a reference for tomato quality breeding and research efforts.

Key words: fresh-eating tomato, quality, Delphi method, analytic hierarchy process, construction of evaluation system

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