Intro

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Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), popularly known as “Kamatis” in the Philippines, is a savory, typically

red, edible fruit, as well as the plant which bears it. The tomato fruit is consumed in diverse ways,
including raw, as an ingredient in many dishes and sauces, and in drinks.

The tomato belongs to the nightshade family. The plants typically grow to 1–3 metres (3–10 ft) in height
and have a weak, woody stem that often vines over other plants. It is a perennial, although often grown
outdoors in temperate climates as an annual.

Tomato is the top source of Vitamin A and C. It also contains a significant amounts of dietary fiber, beta-
carotene, iron, lycopene, magnesium, niacin, potassium, phosphorus, riboflavin and thiamine. Tomato
is low in saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium. And unlike most foods, cooking or processing of tomato
(e.g. tomato paste, catsup, tomato soup, tomato sauce) is beneficial to health. Heating up tomato
breaks down its cell walls and releasing more lycopene, a phytochemical that is good to our health.

Tomatoes are extensively cultivated throughout the world. It is considered to be one of the most
profitable crops in the Philippines and the second most important fruit vegetable in the country after
eggplant (Altoveros & Borromeo 2010). It was reported that 4.8 million hectares of tomato were planted
worldwide with a production reaching 161.8 million tons in the year 2012 (FAOSTAT 2012). Moreover,
the Philippines produced about 214.6 thousands metric tons of tomato from 16.7 thousand hectares
(BAS 2015). Consumption of tomatoes by Filipinos continues to increase due to its wide variety of uses
and nutritional value.

Tomato is one of the most profitable crops in the country. But due to the pandemic,
distribution channels for vegetables and other products have been disrupted in agricultural areas
such as the Cordillera Administrative Region, where delivery restrictions have resulted in the
crops being thrown out. A large number of these vegetables and fruits have decayed to the point
where it is no longer worthwhile to supply them, resulting in their disposal (Rivas, 2020).

On June 6, 2020, little and medium-sized tomatoes were discovered abandoned along the
highways in Tinoc Town, Ifugao, in the province of Nueva Vizcaya. According to the
transactions at the Nueva Vizcaya agricultural terminal in Bambang on June 4, the market price
of tomatoes plummeted from P12 to P4 per kilogram. Farmers gave part of their produce to
villages that had been quarantined (Vizcaya et al., 2020). Instead of being used for commercial
purposes, the items were disposed of or donated, resulting in no financial gain for the farmers.

A considerable amount of food is lost or squandered every year. Because of the current
COVID-19 outbreak, a range of areas of household food buying and preparation have been
significantly negatively impacted (Rodgers et al., 2021). As a result, there is a pressing need to
develop new food products that are more shelf-stable, such as jam. Because of this, the purpose
of this research is to develop and evaluate novel ideas for the reservation of tomato-based goods
(tomato jam ).

However, since Nueva Vizcaya State University already offers tomato jam, we decided to
enhance it by adding mango, pineapple, papaya, and santol to the mix.

The Carabao mango, also known as the Philippine mango or Manila mango, is a variety
of particularly sweet mango from the Philippines.] It is one of the most important varieties of
mango cultivated in the Philippines. The variety is reputed internationally due to its sweetness
and exotic taste.

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