*4.9. Statistical Analysis*

The data were checked for normality before being subjected to an analysis of variance (ANOVA). The time of storage and the treatments were the sources of variation. Following one-way ANOVA, significant differences between mean values were detected using Tukey's HSD test (*p* = 0.05). SPSS was used to conduct statistical analysis (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA).

#### **5. Conclusions**

The current study emphasizes the possibility of employing natural volatiles obtained from sage essential oils to preserve tomato fruit during storage and/or transit at 11 ◦C and high RH levels of 90%. In breaker tomatoes, EO-enrichment (sustained effect) retained fruit firmness, respiration rates, and ethylene emission in low EO levels (50 μL L<sup>−</sup>1), while fruit metabolism was sped up in high EO levels of 500 μL L−1, with decreased firmness and increased rates of respiration and ethylene and effects on antioxidant capacity. The effects were more pronounced during the storage period of 14 days, in comparison with fruit subject to traditional storage/transit practice. In red fruits, the EOs impacts were evidenced earlier (at two and seven days of storage) with increased rates of respiration and ethylene, increased TSS and *β*-carotene, and decreased lycopene content. Considering the pre-exposed fruits to EOs, quality attributes were more affected in mature green fruits and to a lesser extent in red fruits. Furthermore, based on appearance, color, and texture evaluations, taste panel trials demonstrated an overwhelming preference for EO-treated red fruit during choice testing. Additional investigation is needed to encapsulate the EOs and to examine the application of EOs mixtures, based on their active ingredients, for the preservation of tomato fruits. The use of natural products to preserve fresh commodities should be researched further to determine the best application conditions (i.e., method, duration, and concentration) for each commodity in each case.

**Supplementary Materials:** The following are available online at https://www.mdpi.com/article/ 10.3390/plants10122645/s1. Figure S1: Impacts of sage essential oil (EO) on *L\**, *a\**, *b\** and chroma values in tomato fruit at breaker and red ripening stage, exposed to ambient air (control) or EO (50 or 500 μL L<sup>−</sup>1).

**Author Contributions:** P.X.: investigation, data curation; A.C.: investigation, methodology, and writing—original draft preparation, review and editing; C.R.: investigation; N.T.: conceptualization, supervision, formal analysis, writing—review and editing, funding acquisition, and project administration. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research was funded by PRIMA StopMedWaste project, which is funded by PRIMA, a programme supported by the European Union with co-funding by the Funding Agencies RIF–Cyprus.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
