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Fruit quality phenotyping is a bottleneck in plant breeding. The present work aimed to investigate the applicability of visible (Vis) and near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy for quality evaluation in dry red chili powder. We constructed prediction models for the American Spice Trade Association (ASTA)-colour and the Scoville Heat Unit (SHU)-pungency pepper traits using spectroscopy and multivariate statistical techniques. Predictive partial least squares (PLS) models were successfully achieved with high correlations (r) between the predicted and reference values for calibration and validation (r = 0.955 and 0.928 for ASTA-colour; r = 0.941 and 0.918 for SHU-pungency). Spectroscopy data from visible and short-wave radiation (Vis-SWNIR) provided the most robust (residual predictive deviation value) model for ASTA-colour (RPD = 2.84) and long-wave radiation (LWNIR) for SHU-pungency (RPD = 2.48). Spectral categories for wavelength range selection, variable importance for effective wavelength selection, and root mean press-statistic for factor selection were important criteria for PLS. Trait variance and distribution were also important criteria for the predictive capacity and power of the models. In conclusion, non-invasive spectroscopy was a promising tool in our study for dry red chili quality phenotyping.

An effect of breaking the cold chain on cos lettuce (Lactuca sativa var. longifolia) had been studied in this research. Cos lettuce was taken under cold chain system at 4°C. Imitating the exposure to high temperature in hot country, cos lettuce was put out in the 25, 30, 35,and 40C atmosphere for 15, 30, 45 and 60 min. Product life, weight loss percentage, change of colour and chlorophyll content were measured to investigate quality degradation of cos lettuce. The limitation and good practices cos lettuce which had to go through cold chain breakage were acquired. From the results, it is recommended that cos lettuce should not exposed to temperature higher than 25C for longer than 30 min in order to maintain acceptable quality and freshness close to absolute cold chain, considered from degradation of weight, colour and chlorophyll. Degree of temperature had influences on degrading levels of cos lettuce. Exposing to temperature higher than 35C would degrade its quality and freshness and reduce storage life and should be avoid in any cases.

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