A Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) and Chemometric Approach to Improve Apple Fruit Quality Management: A Case Study on the Cultivars “Cripps Pink” and “Braeburn”

Abstract

Abstract:The potential of near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) in the wavelength range of 1000-2500 nm for predicting quality parameters such as total soluble solids (TSS), acidity (TA), firmness, and individual sugars (glucose, fructose, sucrose, and xylose) for two cultivars of apples ("Braeburn" and "Cripps Pink") was studied during the pre-and post-storage periods. Simultaneously, a qualitative investigation on the capability of NIRS to discriminate varieties, harvest dates, storage periods and fruit inhomogeneity was carried out. In order to generate a sample set with high variability within the most relevant apple quality traits, three different harvest time points in combination with five different storage periods were chosen, and the evolution of important quality parameters was followed both with NIRS and wet chemical methods. By applying a principal component analysis (PCA) a differentiation between the two cultivars, freshly harvested vs. long-term stored apples and, notably, between the sun-exposed vs. shaded side of apples could be found. For the determination of quality parameters effective prediction models for titratable acid (TA) and individual sugars such as fructose, glucose and sucrose by using partial least square (PLS) regression have been developed. Our results OPEN ACCESSMolecules 2015, 20 13604 complement earlier reports, highlighting the versatility of NIRS as a fast, non-invasive method for quantitative and qualitative studies on apples.

Characterisation and prediction of carbohydrate content in zucchini fruit using near infrared spectroscopy

“…To evaluate the predictive ability of equations in relation to the overall error of the reference method, the SEL was calculated (Table ) and related to SEP. The SEP/SEL ratio in our work ranged from 1.68 to 2.70 for the individual sugars and starch, which classify them as having good precision, and therefore suitable for accurate routine use, although no calibration model could be determined for sucrose content in kiwi fruit, possibly owing to the small range of sucrose content in the samples studied . For intact banana, it has been reported excellent calibration model statistics for the concentration of individual soluble sugars in mesocarp tissue for a PLS model based on diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (950–1700 nm) of intact fruit for glucose: R 2 CV = 0.96, SECV = 1.8; for sucrose: R 2 CV = 0.94, SECV = 0.9 g kg −1 on a dry weight basis.…”

“…For NIR determination of sugars by traditional calibration methods, such as least‐squares regression applied from one to four wavelengths, second derivative transmittance measurements have been employed for total sugar content in strawberries, oranges, peaches and cherries . A more limited body of work exists for NIR analysis of individual sugars in juice and for analysis of intact fruit of grapes, mango, apple, banana and none for such analysis of zucchini fruit.…”

Applications of Non-destructive Technologies for Agricultural and Food Products Quality Inspection

“…The ingredients responsible for the quality features of food such as taste and aroma, in addition to antioxidants, are manufactured in chloroplasts [ 32 ]. The non-destructive evaluation of food quality using NIR spectroscopy method has been applied widely for oils, proteins [ 33 , 34 ], dry matter [ 33 , 35 ], firmness [ 36 , 37 ] and total soluble solids [ 33 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 ]. Application of VIS-NIR spectroscopy for measuring vitamin C content in chillies was also investigated by Wang et al [ 41 ].…”

The color detection of two cucumber cultivars by NIR Spectroscopy

“…NIRS is a device that utilizes the near infrared wave color spectrum able to predict the internal quality of a product quickly and uniformly. Some research has been done to measure the internal quality of fruits and vegetables using NIRS such as grape (Guidetti et al 2010), tomato (Nikbakht et al 2011), Cavendish banana (Liew and Lau 2012), mango cv Gedong (Sugianti et al 2012), Thai mango (Watanawan et al 2014), apple (Eisenstecken et al 2015). Each research focuses on the internal quality determination using NIRS.…”