Estimating moisture content and physical properties of sweet potato based on the multiparameter of electrical impedance spectroscopy

Abstract

Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.), an important tuber crop, has a prominent role in food crops (Albuquerque, Sampaio, & Souza, 2019; El Sheikha & Ray, 2017; Souza et al., 2019). It is rich in nutrition which contains many minerals and vitamins (Bovell-Benjamin, 2007). Due to high moisture content, sweet potato is affected by microorganisms easily, and especially susceptible to microbial activities such as deterioration. Sweet potato is commonly dried into chips or milled into flour after drying to extend the shelf life (Falade & Solademi, 2010; Onwude, Hashim, Abdan, Janius, & Chen, 2018). Recently, as the increasing concern on drying quality, the novel methods of hyperspectral imaging, computer vision, and electrical parameter have been gained significant interest in measuring moisture content and physical properties (Imaizumi, Tanaka, Sato, Yoshida,