To preserve the quality and extend the shelf-life of tomatoes, immediate postharvest cooling is crucial. By removing field heat, farmers can prevent over-ripening, dehydration, and decay, ensuring that tomatoes maintain their freshness. Cooling is especially important for tomatoes harvested for distant markets, particularly those picked when pink or light red, as delaying cooling can lead to over-ripening before reaching consumers.

One common method is room cooling, where containers of tomatoes are placed in refrigerated spaces. It’s essential to stack the containers loosely to allow sufficient air circulation, which helps dissipate respiration heat.

Farmers should also be aware of tomatoes’ sensitivity to chilling injury. For mature green tomatoes, a storage temperature of around 14°C is ideal, while pink tomatoes can be kept at 10°C. However, prolonged storage at temperatures that are too low can lead to ripening issues and decay, especially due to pathogens like *Alternaria*. To ripen green tomatoes, a temperature range of 18°C to 21°C is recommended, as ripening at higher temperatures (above 26.7°C) may compromise eating quality.

For slowing ripening and minimizing decay in mature green tomatoes, temperatures between 14.4°C and 15.6°C are effective. Light red tomatoes can be stored for about two weeks at 10°C, though longer storage periods can reduce their shelf-life. Once fully ripe, tomatoes may be stored at slightly lower temperatures for short periods without significant loss of quality. However, extended storage at low temperatures will affect their color, texture, and flavor.

Farmers growing greenhouse tomatoes can store pink to firm-red tomatoes between 10°C and 12.7°C, but less mature tomatoes should be ripened first at around 21°C before storage.

Maintaining the right postharvest conditions, particularly cooling and temperature management, is vital to preserving tomato quality, avoiding chilling injury, and extending shelf-life.