Articles
DETERMINATION OF AVOCADO MATURITY BY NEAR-INFRARED SPECTROMETRY
Article number
562_19
Pages
175 – 179
Language
English
Abstract
Mature avocado (Persea americana Mill.) fruit do not ripen on the tree, but soften several days after being picked.
There are no visible changes in the fruit, which can be used for determining maturity.
Acceptable maturity indices for avocado are oil content and dry weight content, but common tests for these are destructive and labor intensive, and are limited in the number of sampled fruits that can be analyzed.
A reliable non-destructive test for avocado maturity is required.
The feasibility of near-infrared (NIR) spectrometry as a rapid and non-destructive alternative method for the determination of the maturity stage was tested in several orchards during the 1996 season.
Several batches of fruits (100 fruits per batch) were scanned individually, in reflectance mode, in the wavelength range, 1200 to 2400 nm.
Dry matter content was measured for each fruit.
NIR models were developed based on Partial Least Square (PLS) regression with respect to the first derivative of the spectra.
NIR models showed prediction accuracy of 0.9-1.3% Standard Error of Prediction (SEP). NIR spectrometry should be considered as an alternative method for maturity determination of avocado.
There are no visible changes in the fruit, which can be used for determining maturity.
Acceptable maturity indices for avocado are oil content and dry weight content, but common tests for these are destructive and labor intensive, and are limited in the number of sampled fruits that can be analyzed.
A reliable non-destructive test for avocado maturity is required.
The feasibility of near-infrared (NIR) spectrometry as a rapid and non-destructive alternative method for the determination of the maturity stage was tested in several orchards during the 1996 season.
Several batches of fruits (100 fruits per batch) were scanned individually, in reflectance mode, in the wavelength range, 1200 to 2400 nm.
Dry matter content was measured for each fruit.
NIR models were developed based on Partial Least Square (PLS) regression with respect to the first derivative of the spectra.
NIR models showed prediction accuracy of 0.9-1.3% Standard Error of Prediction (SEP). NIR spectrometry should be considered as an alternative method for maturity determination of avocado.
Authors
Z. Schmilovitch, A. Hoffman, H. Egozi, R. El-Batzri, C. Degani
Keywords
Harvest, Decision making, Dry matter, Oil content
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