15/04/2021

International on-line Course on

Postharvest & Fresh-cut Technologies

NON DESTRUCTIVE QUALITY

EVALUATION OF FRESH FRUITS
AND VEGETABLES

Dr. Maria Luisa Amodio

Research Unit on Postharvest Technology
Dept. of Agriculture, Food and Environment
Università di Foggia
Via Napoli 25 71121 Foggia, ITALY
E-mail: marialuisa.amodio@unifg.it

OUTLINE

QUALITY ASSESMENTS
NON DESTRUCTIVE VS DESTRUCTIVE
ELECTROMAGNETIC SYSTEMS
DIGITAL IMAGING
SPECTROSCOPY
HYPERSPECTRAL IMAGING
DATA ANALYSIS
OTHER APPLICATIONS
CONCLUSIONS

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QUALITY ASSESMENT
QUALITY PARAMETERS:
EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL COLOR
FIRMNESS
SOLUBLE SOLIDS CONTENT
ACID CONTENT
CAROTENOIDS AND VITAMINS
PHENOL CONTENT AND ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITY
OTHER CONSTITUENTS

DESTRUCTIVE
SYSTEMS

PROPERTIES: NON DESTRUCTIVE METHODS

•FAST
•EASY TO USE
•CHEAP
•FLEXIBLE
•NO SAMPLE PREPARATION
•NO NEED OF SPECIALISTS
•REPETITIVE AND CONSISTENT
•CAN BE USED ONLINE
•CONTEMPORANEUS MEASURE OF MANY PARAMETERS (SSC, ACIDITY,
CAROTENOIDS, PHENOLS), PHYSICAL PARAMETERS (FIRMNESS) AND
OTHER CHARACTERISTICS IMPORTANT FOR THE CONSUMER.

QUALITY CONTROL

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ELECTROMAGNETIC
SYSTEMS

ELECTROMAGNETIC
The electromagnetic spectrum possesses from the
longest to the shortest wavelengths including radio
waves, microwaves, infrared, visible, UV rays, X‐rays
and γ‐rays

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ELECTROMAGNETIC
Working principle of electromagnetic waves

MAIN ELECTROMAGNETIC SYSTEMS

Imaging Non imaging

COLORIMETER
COLOR

COLOR
DIGITAL CAMERA
MORPHOLOGY

NMR INTERNAL FEATURES

INTERNAL FEATURES
X‐RAY
COMPOSITION
SPECTROPHOTOMETRIC COLOR

COMPOSITION
HYPERSPECTRAL IMAGING COLOR

INTERNAL FEATURES
THERMAL IMAGING TEMPERATURE

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DIGITAL
IMAGING

COLOR

DIGITAL IMAGING

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COLOR

Analisi di immagine

RGB IMAGE
Amodio et al., Journal of Agricultural Engineering (2011), 4. 33-40.

S+V FROM HSV COLOR SPACE

BINARY MASK FROM S+V WITH

1 FOR THE SEEDS AND 0 FOR
THE BACKGROUND

G IMAHE FROM RGB

MEASURE OF L*a*b*
THRESHOLDING AND CREATION OF A WITHIN THE REGION OF
BINARY IMAGE WITH 1 VALUES THE MASK
ASSIGNED TO SEED BACKGROUND

CONVERSION OF THE
COMPLEMENTAR IMAGE WITH 1
RGB INTO L*a*b*
VALUE ASSIGNED TO RED PART

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MORPHOLOGICAL DISCRIMINATION AMONG DIFFERENT

CULTIVARS OF WALNUTS, PECANS AND PISTACHIOS

Costa et al,, 2011

MORPHOLOGICAL INDEXES

SPECTROSCOPY

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COLOR

SPECTROPHOTOMETER
The spectrophotometers differ from the colorimeters
in the way that instead of using absorbance they
utilize transmittance, reflectance or transflectance as
a function of wavelength. Also the light source may
be extended to the other regions such as UV and
infrared regions.

COLOR
Working principle of a spectrometer can be
divided into three different categories
Namely, reflectance, transmittance and interactance.

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COMPOSITION
VIS‐NIR and NIR spectroscopy can be used to predict internal
concentration of the main constituents of a product.

Vis Vis‐NIR and NIR

The region of the electromagnetic spectrum in the range of 400‐
680nm is the visible region and from 700‐2500nm is the near
infrared region.

The sample is irradiated with a VIS‐NIR or NIR source; as the irradiation

passes through the sample, it gets absorbed and scattered causing a
change in its spectral characteristics. This change is a function of the
structure of the sample, the moisture content, the particle size, the
temperature and, most importantly, of its chemical composition.

COMPOSITION
NIR Principle: It is based on the absorbance of electromagnetic
energy due to the molecular vibration of boundaries C‐H, N‐H, O‐H.
The near infrared spectra consist of overtones and combination
bands of the fundamental molecular absorptions generally
overlapping.
Wavelength Compounds Symbol

1200 Lipids C‐H

1440 H2O Carbohydrates O‐H
1730 Lipids C‐H
1780 Lipids C‐H
1940 H2O O‐H
1980 Proteins N‐H
2080 Carbohydrate O‐H
2180 Proteins C=O, N‐H
2320 Lipids C‐H
2350 Lipids C‐H

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COMPOSITION
PREDICTION OF SSC, PH AND TA OF
SATSUMA MANDARIN

(Gomez et al., 2006)

NON‐DESTRUCTIVE PREDICTION OF COMPOSITION

SWEETNESS OF INTACT MANGO

(Jha et al., 2012)

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COMPOSITION
PREDICTION OF INTERNAL PHENOLIC CONTENT AND
ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITY OF FRESH‐CUT ARTICHOKES
(Amodio et al, presented at NIR2015, Brasil 18‐23 October)

Partial Least Squares Regression was used to develop calibration models of phenols
and antioxidant content: samples were divided in a calibration set and a validation set
in a 3 to 1 ratio.
#LV R2fit R2CV RMSEC RMSECV RMSEP
Antioxidant capacity
5 0,77 0,51 31 47 47
(der II + mean center)
Phenolic content
5 0,79 0,58 11 15 13
(der II + mean center)

HYPERSPECTRAL
IMAGING

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COMPOSITION
HYPERSPECTRAL IMAGING
Hyperspectral imaging (HSI) is a combination or integration of imaging
and spectroscopic techniques for the quantitative prediction of
physical and chemical characteristics of the food samples as well as
their spatial distribution.

Three types of scan modes:

 Point scan

 Line scan

 Area scan

The major include the light

source and a detector

COMPOSITION
Principle

The images acquired over the visible and near‐infrared wavelengths and
combined to form a three dimensional hyperspectral cube, with two
dimensions for describing spatial information and the third one for
spectral information. In this hypercube, each pixel records the entire
measured spectrum and each image record for each pixel the intensity
of reflectance at that wavelength.

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COMPOSITION

Parameter Preprocessing LVs R2 RMSEC R2 RMSECV R2 RMSEP

MSC 4 0.80 0.476 0.76 0.529 0.85 0.470

Smoothing + MSC 4 0.76 0.529 0.71 0.578 0.77 0.573

oBrix
1st deriv. + mean centering 7 0.87 0.383 0.81 0.474 0.74 0.542

Mean centering (MC) 7 0.81 0.388 0.81 0.475 0.77 0.515

MSC 5 0.78 2.456 0.73 2.716 0.79 2.423

Smoothing + MSC 5 0.67 2.984 0.63 3.194 0.72 3.008

DPPH
1st derivative + MSC 5 0.80 2.334 0.76 2.577 0.79 2.417

1st deriv+ MC 7 0.86 1.984 0.81 2.319 0.75 2.758

MSC 4 0.82 2.716 0.79 2.885 0.71 3.409

Smoothing + MSC 4 0.76 3.078 0.73 3.277 0.63 3.897

Phenols
1st derivative + MSC 3 0.82 2.695 0.81 2.793 0.72 3.423

2nd deriv + MC 2 0.81 2.765 0.79 2.873 0.79 3.113

COMPOSITION
FENNEL: TSS DISTRIBUTION MAPPING

The distribution map of TSS

concentration over the fennel section
shows that TSS increase passing from
external to internal leaves as the
xylematic vessels were carrying the
sugars to the leaves.

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COMPOSITION

SUGAR DISTRIBUTION MAP FOR UNRIPE, MATURE

AND FULLY MATURE MELONS

(da Sugiyama, J., Tsuta, M. 2010)

COMPOSITION

6 LVs 96.91% of co‐variance) for VIT C

• 𝑹𝟐𝒄𝒂𝒍 𝟎. 𝟖𝟏
RMSEC = 8.377
• 𝑹𝟐𝒄𝒗 𝟎. 𝟕𝟕
RMSECV = 9.438
• 𝑹𝟐𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝟎. 𝟕𝟑 RMSEP = 10.249

• 8 LVs (explaining 97.12% of co‐variance in the data for Antioxidant Activity

• 𝑹𝟐𝒄𝒂𝒍 𝟎. 𝟖𝟐 𝑹𝟐𝒄𝒗 𝟎. 𝟕𝟓 𝑹𝟐𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝟎. 𝟕𝟔
• RMSEC = 13.544 RMSECV = 15.675 RMSEP = 16.022 (mg Trolox/100g)

• 5 LVs (explaining 97.12% of co‐variance in the data for Phenolics

• 𝑹𝟐𝒄𝒂𝒍 𝟎. 𝟖𝟎 𝑹𝟐𝒄𝒗 𝟎. 𝟕𝟓 𝑹𝟐𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝟎. 𝟕𝟖
• RMSEC = 13.544 RMSECV = 15.675 RMSEP = 16.022 (mg Trolox/100g)

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INTERNAL FEATURES
HYPERSPECTRAL IMAGING
EXAMPLE OF DEFECTS DETECTION for (a) insect damage, (b) wind scarring,
(c) thrips scarring, (d) scale infestation, (e) canker spot, (f) copper burn, (g)
phytotoxicity, (h) heterochromatic stripe and (i) stem‐end.
Li et al.., 2011

INTERNAL FEATURES
DISCRIMINATION OF DEFECTIVE GOJY BERRY FRUIT
(Fatchurrhaman pHD thesis, unpublished)

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DATA ANALYSIS

DATA ANALYSIS
QUALITY CONTROL

QUANTITAVE QUALITAVE
ANALYSIS ANALYSIS

System Outputs
Inputs

Reference data Model

Prediction of analytical
Qualitative Data parameter
Spectra Qualitative Discrimination

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DATA ANALYSIS
QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS
AS FOR A SINGLE SIGNAL

y=A+mX

WE MODEL n SIGNALS (VARIABLES)

Y=0+1x1+ 2x2+…..+ nxn+

DATA ANALYSIS
QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS
CLASSIFICATION MODELING
IS THIS FRUIT BELONGING TO
ORIGIN 1 ORIGIN 1?
ORIGIN 2
ORIGIN 3 YES
 NO
8

7
Q Residuals Reduced (p=0.950) (6.99%)

0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5
Hotelling T^2 Reduced (p=0.950) (93.01%)

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DATA ANALYSIS
STATISTICAL PARAMETERS
• R2: IT MEASURE THE EXPLAINED VARIANCE
•STANDARD ERROR OF CALIBRATION (SEC) IT IS REFERRED TO
RESIDUAL DEVIATION IN THE CALIBRATION DATASET
•STANDARD ERROR OF PREDICTION (SEP) KNOWN AS STANDARD
DEVIATION OF DIFFERENCES, FROM REFERENCE VALUE AND PREDICED
VALUA IN A VALIDATION DATASET

FOR A GOOD MODEL:

‐LOW SEC,
2
‐HIGH R (Shenk and Westerhaus, 1995b; Williams, 2001)

DATA ANALYSIS

Big Data Analysis/Image and spectral

analysis
Imaging Non imaging
Low • Preprocessing (after acquisition)
Level
(Smoothing, Derivative, MSC, SNV etc.)
processing

• Thresholding/Segmentation

• Image Analysis
Medium
 Texture features
Level  Morphometry descriptors
processing  Color parameters

• Spectral Analysis
 spectra
High
Level • Data modelling
processing

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COMMERCIAL
APPLICATIONS

NIR for In the following fruits OTHER

TSS or Brix  Apple
Dry matter  Blackberry
 Citrus
Titratable acidity
 Grape
Internal color
 Mango
External color  Pear
 Persimmon
NIR for In the following fruits
TSS or Brix  Apple
Acidity  Pear
Firmness  Peach
Color  Mandarin
Dry matter  Orange
 Size Grape applications
 Brix, pH and TA
Cellar applications
Measurement of % alcohol
pH
TA
Acids citric (malic, lactic, tartaric etc)

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OTHER
• Based on the interactance mode for TSS
measurement
• Can be used for apples, pears, apricots, peaches,
Nectarines, melons, tomatoes, strawberries

Other instruments with wide applications

OTHER
ON‐LINE SORTING MACHINES FOR BRIX CONTENT
BASED ON NIR

Mele Actinidia

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ON‐LINE SORTING MACHINES FOR INTERNAL DEFECTS

OTHER

PRODUCT
AUTHENTICATION

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AUTHENTICATION

Agorecological (livestock) Sensitivity 1.000

AGROMAN (M) 90 SAMPLES Specificity 0.983

ASC – (functional mix))

Simplified (Convenzionalized) Sensitivity 0.967

SUBST (S) 90 SAMPLE Specificity 0.943

Bare Soil

Conventional (C) Sensitivity 0.967

30 SAMPLES Specificity 0.971

1.5

Real class:
Y CV Predicted

TEST SET
Violetto Catanese
0.5

Violetto 92 0 0

Predict as:
Catanese 0 76
-0.5 Y CV Predicted 1 (Violetto)

TOT 92 76 Y CV Predicted 2 (Catanese)

Violetto
Catanese
-1
50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 550
Sample

SENS Violetto: 100% SPEC Violetto vs Catanese: 100% Training Predicted Value TOT Global
CV
set HT1 HT2 HT3 HT4 HT5 HT6 HT7 SENS SPEC
HT1 10 0 0 0 0 0 0 10 100 100
Observed data

HT2 0 3 0 1 0 1 0 5 60 99
SENS Catanese: 100% SPEC Catanese vs Violetto: 100%
HT3 0 0 9 0 0 0 0 9 100 100
HT4 0 0 0 10 0 0 0 10 100 98
HT5 0 0 0 0 13 0 0 13 100 100
Cultivar were discriminated with 100% HT6 0 1 0 0 0 11 1 13 85 98
HT7 0 0 0 0 0 0 13 13 100 98
Non error
accuracy‐ TOTAL 73
rate = 92
Predicted Value TOT Global
Test set CV
“Non Error Rate” for harvest time was HT1
HT1 HT2 HT3 HT4 HT5 HT6 HT7
3 0 0 0 0 0 0
SENS SPEC
3 100 95
Observed data

HT2 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 2 50 100
(92% in calibration and 80% in HT3
HT4
0
1
0
0
3
0
0
1
0 0
0 1
0
0
3 100 100
3 33 100
HT5 0 0 0 0 5 0 0 5 100 100
prediction. HT6 0 0 0 0 0 5 0 5 100 85
HT7 0 0 0 0 0 1 3 4 75 100
Non error
TOTAL 25
rate = 80

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Good accuracy of prediction of 7

harvest times, with some error on the
HT5,
“Non Error Rate” for harvest time was
(89.3% in calibration and 88.6% in
prediction).

APPLICATION OF HSI FOR DISCRIMINATION OF LOW INPUT

AGRONOMIC PRACTICE ( On‐going project)
IRRIGATION FERTILIZATION

CONVENTIONAL LOW T1
HIGH T2
SENSOR BASED LOW T3
(OPTIMIZED
HIGH T4

ANOVA-simultaneous component analysis (ASCA)

FACTOR1: IRRIGATION not significant

FACTOR2: FERTILIZATION P=0.0001
INTERACTION F1XF2 P=0.006

SUSTAINING LOW‐IMPACT PRACTICES IN HORTICULTURE

THROUGH NON‐DESTRUCTIVE APPROACH TO PROVIDE MORE
INFORMATION ON FRESH PRODUCE HISTORY & QUALITY

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SHELF‐LIFE AND
OTHERS

EFFECT OF ATMOSPHERE AND STORAGE TIME ON OTHER

QUINOA SPROUTS (Amodio et al, presented at NIR2015, Brasil 18‐23 October)

Hyperspectral Images were acquired for each

combination of storage time and oxygen level, with
a hyperspectral scanner (version 1.4, DV srl, Padova,
Italy) .

x 10
For multivariate data: 2.5
T1
2 T2
ANOVA Simultaneous Component Analysis 1.5
T3
Scores - SC1 Factor 1: Time

(ASCA) for oxygen level and storage time 1

Effect P‐value 0.5

0
Oxygen level 0.1326 -0.5

Storage time 0.0001 -1

Interaction 0.2963 -1.5

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OTHER

SHELF‐LIFE PREDICTION ON ROCKET LEAVES BASED ON RAW OTHER

MATERIAL QUALITY (CHAUDHRY, pHD thesis, unpublished)

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OTHER
CLASSIFICATION OF FRESH‐CUT ARTICHOKES BY
DAYS OF STORAGE
Training C Predicted Value Global
TOT
PREDICTION IMPROVED USING 3 CLASSES INSTEAD set V 0 2 5 7 SENS SPEC
0 72 3 0 2 77 94 91
OF 4 (Berardi, PhD thesis, unpublished)

Observed data
2 18 50 5 4 77 65 92

5 0 10 42 25 77 55 92
Predicted
Global
Training Value
CV TOT 7 2 5 13 57 77 74 87
set
0 2 >5 SENS SPEC Non error
TOTAL
308 rate = 72
Observed data

0 73 3 1 77 95 95 C Predicted Value Global

Test set TOT
V 0 2 5 7 SENS SPEC
2 10 48 19 77 62 97

Observed data
0 23 0 0 0 23 100 96
>5 1 5 148 154 96 87 2 3 18 1 1 23 78 98
Non error
TOTAL 5 0 4 12 7 23 52 99
308 rate = 84
Predicted
Global 7 0 1 2 20 23 87 97
Value
Test set CV TOT Non error
0 2 >5 SENS SPEC TOTAL
92 rate = 79
Observed data

0 22 1 0 23 96 96

2 3 17 3 23 74 98

>5 0 4 42 46 91 99
Non error
TOTAL
92 rate = 87

OTHER

Fruit were stored for

18 days at 4 and 12 °C‐

Fruit discrimination Days of storage at 4 °C

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OTHER

Effect of temperature

Effect of time

CONCLUSIONS

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CONCLUSIONS
NON DESTRUCTIVE QUALITY EVALUATIONS ARE BECOMING
MORE AND MORE RELEVANT
ONLY SOME OF THE AVAILABLE TECHNOLOGIES WERE
PRESENTED
OVERALL THERE IS THE POSSIBILITY TO DETECT ALL THE
PROCUCE QUALITY FEATURES
FURTHER RESEARCH PERSPECTIVES IN THIS FIELD SHOULD BE
FOCUSED ON SIMPLIFYING EXISTING MODELS AND EXPLOITING
THE POSSIBILITY TO DEVELOP NEW METHODS FOR UNEXPLORED
NUTRITIONAL COMPOUNDS AND OVER A LARGE NUMBER OF
SPECIES, ALSO TO ASSESS THE IMPACT OF PRE AND
POSTHARVEST FACTORS ON THE FATE OF THESE COMPOUNDS
MOREOVER THE POTENTIALITY OF THESE METHODS FOR
CHARACTERIZATION AND DISCRIMINATION PURPOSES SHOULD
BE FURTHER INVESTIGATED

Thanks for your attention

https://www.facebook.com/PostharvestFoggia/

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