MONALISA - A collaborative multi-sensor approach for non-destructive prediction of apple fruit quality (XI Giornate Scientifiche SOI)

Authors: Zanella Angelo1, Nadja Sadar1, Giovanni Agati2, Peter
Robatscher1, Wouter Saeys3, Rob Schouten4, Pol
Tijskens4, Lorenzo Spinelli5, Pieter Verboven6, Michael
Oberhuber1
[email protected]
1 Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry Laimburg,
Ora, Bolzano
2 Istituto di Fisica "Nello Carrara" (IFAC), Consiglio
Nazionale delle Ricerche, Sesto Fiorentino
3 BIOSYST-MeBioS, Katholieke Universiteit, Leuven, Belgio
4 Horticulture and Product Physiology, Wageningen
University, Olanda
5 Istituto di Fotonica e Nanotecnologie (IFN), Consiglio
Nazionale delle Ricerche, Milano
6 Department of Agro-Engineerng and Economics,
Katholieke Universiteit, Leuven, Belgio

Since the apple fruit industry faces significant post-harvest
losses due to inferior quality of only a small fraction
of it, current research efforts aim to develop effective ways
for the assessment and the prediction of apple fruit quality
and storage potential. In the present collaboration, solutions
were sought in a multidisciplinary approach. To this
end apple cultivars Nicoter/Kanzi(r), Braeburn and Gala
from different altitudes, European production regions, and
agronomic conditions, were analyzed with various nondestructive
optical and acoustic techniques. Fruit were
measured with non-destructive sensors based on VIS interactance,
chlorophyll fluorescence and acoustic firmness.
Using statistical procedures, such as probelation and
indexed non-linear- and quantile regression, kinetic models
for describing post-harvest colour and texture evolution
were calibrated on the basis of the data with promising
results. Moreover, spatially- and time-resolved NIR spectroscopy
used for developing empirical models describing
and predicting flesh firmness, revealed clear differences
between cultivars, and the production regions. For evaluating
the potential of computer tomography (CT) for nondestructive
assessment of internal defects, different settings
for 2D and 3D X-ray CT were tested. While the simple
radiography did not perform satisfactorily, the CT enabled
spatio-temporal monitoring of the development of internal
defects and microstructure, and allowed the calculation of
algorithms for detecting defects in CT scans of whole fruit.
Apples were also measured with NIR spectroscopy and the
standard methods of HPLC-DAD and UV/VIS. PLS
models were developed for alpha farnesene, conjugated
trienols (scald), and antioxidants. The results of this research
could lead to further improvement of pre- and post-harvest
management of apple fruit quality.

Keywords: fruit quality, non-destructive techniques, spectroscopy,
X-ray, kinetic modelling

Links

XI Giornate Scientifiche SOI Website of the conference, displaying among others the program with some of the presentations that have been held during the conference.

Details

Activity type

Participation in scientific conference

Activity work package

Fruit quality; improvement of fruit handling/storage

Activity number

Laimburg-WP4-A45

Activity contact

Dr. Angelo Zanella
Laimburg Research Centre
Laimburg 6 - Pfatten
I-39040 Post Auer (BZ), Italy
[email protected]

Activity partner

Laimburg Research Centre

Activity country

Italy

Last edit

06-03-2017