Enzyme-Assisted Osmosis Process of Functional Sugar to Improve the Quality Characteristics of Cherry Tomatoes

Cherry tomatoes are nutritious food, often processed into long shelf-life preserved foods. However, there is increasing concern about the dangers of high sucrose in traditional preserved fruit. In this paper, the effect of enzyme-assisted osmosis of seven kinds of functional sugars, including psicose, tagatose, isomaltose, trehalose, galactooligosaccharides, isomaltooligosaccharides, and resistant dextrin on cherry tomato was studied. The dry matter content after enzyme treatment and sugar soaking treatment was evaluated. Sensory quality, physicochemical quality, antioxidant capacity, sugar composition, and flavor substances were also measured. The addition of enzymes and functional sugars made cherry tomatoes redder and softer, and increased the soluble solid content (1.45- to 1.67-fold), lycopene content (2.14- to 2.18-fold), total polyphenol content (1.28- to 1.41-fold), and DPPH radical scavenging rate (1.81- to 1.95-fold). Furthermore, the sugar composition and flavor substances were improved. Thus, it is a good choice of adding these functional sugars to produce cherry tomato products with probiotic potential, and this new method can provide a reference for the processing of other fruit products.