## 4 Conclusions  
This study aimed to assess the feasibility of Pulsed Electric Fields (PEF), High Pressure (HP), and Osmotic Dehydration (OD) for enhancing the processing of cherry tomatoes with a focus on extending shelf life and improving quality attributes. After evaluating various parameters, the most suitable conditions were determined as following: PEF: 1.8 kV/cm, 100 pulses; HP: 600 MPa, 5 min; OD: 60% glycerol, 35 \({}^{\circ}\)C, 60 min. PEF and HP pre-treatments accelerated tomato dehydration by up to 90 min through electroporation of plant cells while preserving most of the measured quality attributes (color, texture, sensory  
Figure 7: Shelf life of untreated (Control), osmo-dehydrated (OD) and PEF- and HP-treated and osmo-dehydrated (PEF-OD and HP-OD, respectively) halved tomatoes vs. storage temperature determined in terms of (**a**) microbial growth and (**b**) sensory deterioration. Solid lines represent the fitting of Equation (7) (**a**) and Equation (8) (**b**) to the experimental data. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c} \hline \hline
**T (\({}^{\circ}\)C)** & **Control** & **OD** & **PEF-OD** & **HP-OD** \\ \hline
0 & 44.7 \(\pm\) 3.2  & - & - & - \\
5 & 9.8 \(\pm\) 0.6 \({}^{\circ}\) & 37.8 \(\pm\) 3.9  & 50.4 \(\pm\) 5.3  \\
10 & 4.2 \(\pm\) 0.1  & 22.6 \(\pm\) 3.2  & 26.3 \(\pm\) 3.6  \\
15 & - & 10.9 \(\pm\) 3.1  & 15.7 \(\pm\) 2.7  & 17.7 \(\pm\) 1.9  \\
25 & - & 5.0 \(\pm\) 1.1  & 5.8 \(\pm\) 1.7  & 6.7 \(\pm\) 0.7  \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 3: Shelf life of untreated (Control), osmo-dehydrated (OD) and PEF- and HP-treated and osmo-dehydrated (PEF-OD and HP-OD, respectively) halved tomatoes at different storage temperatures. acceptance) by affecting the inactivation of texture degrading Polygalacturonase (PG) (in the case of HP). All treatments demonstrated their ability to extend the shelf life of tomatoes by up to four-fold or, equivalently, by significantly raising the required storage temperature to achieve the same shelf life. Treated tomatoes can serve as convenient chilled snacks or versatile ingredients in various food formulations, such as ready to eat salads. This research presents opportunities to enhance tomato processing techniques and diversify their culinary uses, aligning with consumer preferences for high-quality, nutritious options with reduced energy consumption. The following supporting information can be downloaded at: [[https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/app132011397/s1](https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/app132011397/s1)]([https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/app132011397/s1](https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/app132011397/s1)), Figure S1: Evolution of (a) glossiness, (b) deformation, (c) peak detachment, (d) color, (e) tomato aroma, (f) tomato flavor, (g) bite firmness and (h) crunchiness during osmotic dehydration of untreated and PEF-treated tomato samples, at 1.8 kV/cm with 20, 50, 100 and 300 pulses (average values \(\pm\) standard deviations); Figure S2: Evolution of (a) glossiness, (b) deformation, (c) peak detachment, (d) color, (e) tomato aroma, (f) tomato flavor, (g) bite firmness and (h) crunchiness during osmotic dehydration of untreated and HP-treated tomato samples, at 100, 200, and 600 MPa for 5 min (average values \(\pm\) standard deviations); Table S1: Sensory characteristics determined for tomatoes. Conceptualization, P.T. ; methodology, A.K., G.D. and E.D. ; validation, A.K., G.D. and E.D. ; investigation, A.K. and G.D.; data curation, A.K. and G.D.; writing--original draft preparation, A.K. and G.D.; writing--review and editing, E.D. and P.T. ; visualization, A.K. ; supervision, E.D. and P.T. ; project administration, P.T. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript. This research has received funding from the General Secretariat for Research and Innovation of the Ministry of Development and Investments under the PRIMA Programme (Project FRUALGAE Code: PRIMA2019-03).