Post-harvest losses of tomatoes can be reduced to a certain level by using relevant storage techniques. Increasing the shelf life of tomatoes is very essential, and it can be accomplish via different preservation practices. This research investigated the proximate composition and fungal content of fresh processed tomato stored at different temperatures. Fresh tomatoes were washed, blended, parboiled, pasteurized and proximate analysis was carried out for the amounts of moisture, ash, crude fibre, crude protein, crude lipid and carbohydrate in the stored tomatoes. Moisture contents of 86.74%, 86.56% and 85.62% were recorded on the 6^th and 1^st weeks of storing the processed tomatoes at room temperature, in a freezer and in a refrigerator respectively. Moisture content tended to increase as the storage time increased during storage at room temperature, but decreased at the other storage temperatures. The highest Crude Protein was obtained at the 3^rd and 4^th weeks of storage in a freezer (2.92), at room temperature (2.84) and in a refrigerator (2.85), and the processed tomatoes stored at room temperature and in a freezer had the highest Crude Fat at the 4^th week of storage. The Crude Fibre of the processed tomatoes stored at room temperature decreased as the duration of storage increased. The Ash content increased over the period of storage at room, fridge and freezer temperatures. Carbohydrate contents of the processed tomatoes obtained when stored in the freezer and fridge were higher than the carbohydrate content recorded at room temperature. The higher crude fibre and carbohydrate content of the processed tomatoes stored in fridge and freezer may be due to reduced activity of microorganisms at that temperatures. Aspergillus amoeus was the prominent fungus isolated from the processed tomatoes at six weeks of storage at room temperature compared to other temperatures tested.

Key words: Tomatoes, shelf life, Proximate, Room temperature, fridge, freezer