Study Of Three Non-Destructive Techniques Potential For Mandarin And Tomato Fruit Quality Assessment

To investigate and control bio-product, one must be able to measure quality attributes. Quality of bio-product encompasses sensory attributes, nutritive values, chemical constituents, mechanical properties, functional properties and defects. Instrumental measurements are often preferred to sensory evaluations in research and commercial situations because they reduce variations in judgment among individuals and can provide a common language among researchers, industry and consumers. Essentially, properties relate to appearance, mechanical properties to texture, and chemical properties to flavor (taste and aroma). Instruments can judgments by imitating the way people test the product or by measurement fundamental properties and combining those mathematically to categorize the quality. Only people can judge quality, but instruments that measure quality-related attributes are vital for research and inspection.The aim in this research is: to study of three non-destructive techniques (Electronic Nose, Impulse Response Technique and Visible/NIRS) potential for Satsuma mandarin "Zaojin Jiaogan" (C. reticulata) and tomato 'Heatwave' (Lycopersicum esculentum)" quality attributes (firmness, soluble solids content and pH) assessment; to developed the models for these attributes prediction; as well as, to study the potential of Electronic Nose and Impulse Response techniques for fruit maturity state evaluation, on the tree for mandarin, and during storage for mandarin and tomato.The chapter I is focused to describe the terminology of developmental stages of horticultural crops. In addition, an extensive bibliographical revision on the technologies of Electronic Nose (EN), Impulse Response Technique (IRT) and Visible/Near Spectroscopy (Vis/NIRS) is given, as well as the theoretical foundation of the objectives and tasks of the present research work.The chapter II is focused to bring out the procedures to measure some fruit quality attributes, using traditional or destructive techniques such as refractometer to determine Soluble Solids Content (SSC), pH mettler to determine (pH), and compression and Magness-Taylor puncture tests carry on the Instrom Machine to determine firmness by compression & puncture tests.The fruit quality attributes during mandarin maturity on the tree and fruit (mandarin & tomato) get ripe in storage (two storage types in plastic bag and carton box were studied). Concluding, the mandarin, during grow and during storage increase the accumulate sugar; during different maturity states of the mandarin on the tree the fruit firmness decrease consequently with time. During both storage treatments in two kinds of fruits, the firmness shows a declined in its value consequently with its storage time. It is clear the influence of the packaging material in the fruit quality characteristics behavior during fruit storage.The aims of the chapter III were to evaluate the capacity of electronic nose monitoring volatile change production and consequently assess to the mandarin fruit maturity state at different harvest dates and tomato maturity with different maturity state at harvest time. To evaluate the capacity of electronic nose to measure the change in volatile production of mandarin and tomato fruit duringstorage. It was used a specific electronic nose device (PEN 2) based on a chemical sensor array and suitable pattern recognition techniques. To study, statistical pattern analysis techniques (Principal component analysis (PCA) and Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA)) in order to see whsther the electronic nose is able to distinguish between different fruit ripeness states at different harvest date and during storage time. In order to identify the sensors responsible for discrimination in the current pattern file was used the loading analysis.In order to analyze the potential of electronic nose technique to predict fruit quality parameters, the electronic nose signal and the results derived from well-established traditional techniques such as pH, soluble solids content, puncture and compression tests were related using a...