NIRS Detection of Moldy Core in Apples

Abstract

The papers contained in this book report some of the peer reviewed Proceedings of the International Conference "Environmentally friendly and safe technologies for quality of fruit and vegetables", but also other papers related with the subject were included. The manuscripts were reviewed by the Editor and Editorial Board, and only those papers judged suitable for publication were accepted. The Editor wish to thank to all the reviewers and authors for their contribution.Authors are responsible for content and accuracy of their papers. Moldy core of apples is undetectable until the fruit is cut or bitten into, it can therefore pose serious problems to both producer and consumer. Removal of diseased fruits prior to storage would be most desirable. The objective of this study was to evaluate the ability of VIS-NIR mini-spectrometers to detect moldy core in apples, on line. An apparatus which is qualified for online NIRS (near infrared spectrometry) measurements was developed based on off-the-shelf mini-spectrometers. 'Top Red' apples, were collected from several orchards before and during the commercial harvest, and were stored at 0°C pending the tests.The data were analyzed by chemometric procedures, specifically, by partial least squares regression (PLSR), and were classified by means of canonical discriminant analysis. The canonical variables were represented by the latent variables of the PLS models, which were based on the spectra. The accuracy of the classification results was high when the moldy fraction threshold was set at 5%; in such a case the mold covers only the seed carpals of the fruit, where it might remain without really damaging the fruit. Improvements should aim to reduce errors in classifying low-level damage, and also in misclassifying some healthy fruits. The rate of testing (1 s per fruit) is acceptable for quality control purposes, but should be accelerated for future packing-line implementation.

Sensing of Mycotoxin Producing Fungi in the Processing of Grains

“…The use of spectroscopic methods in food control and food monitoring is increasing rapidly, in particular in combination with chemometric tools (Shenderey et al 2010). Methods based on one-and two-photon-induced fluorescence spectroscopy are highly attractive because of their outstanding sensitivity and selectivity.…”

Déterminationin vitrode l'activité antifongique des vapeurs d'eugénol et d'huiles essentielles deMentha pulegiumL. et deTanacetum annuumL. vis-à-vis de trois champignons responsables de la pourriture des pommes en post-récolte

“…En effet, A. alternata est l'un des champignons les plus impliqués dans la pourriture du coeur de la pomme (Shenderey et al, 2010). Quant à B. cinerea, il est l'agent causal de la pourriture grise (Mari et al, 2003) et de maladies de plusieurs centaines de plantes hôtes.…”

A Noninvasive Method to Identify Larvae in Apples Based on Wavelets

“…Other methods that have been used to evaluate the freshness/ripeness of the fruit, specifically bananas, are based on the coloration and texture of the peel to determine its condition and fitness for market (Hernandez-Gomez et al 2006). Several quality factors in apples have been evaluated by nondestructive methods (Lu et al 2007), such as using Fourier transform near infrared (NIR) to evaluate the soluble solid contents of apple fresh juice; further, Zude et al (2006) used an NIR spectrometer to evaluate apples with different quality levels that resulted from different storage conditions, whereas Shenderey et al (2010) used NIR spectroscopy to measure the quality of the cores in fruits, and Gonzalez Portillo et al (2008) evaluated quality factors by means of attributes such as total soluble solids and firmness in Mexican apples. These methods, however, were unable to identify larval formations inside the fruit and, thus, did not eliminate the need for invasive methods to evaluate larval infestations.…”