Non Destructive Technology for

Fruits and Vegetables in Thailand

Anupun Terdwongworakul
Department of Food Engineering, Facul
ty of Engineering at Kamphaengsaen
Warunee Thanapase
Agricultural and Agro-Industrial
Product Improvement Institute

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Overview
•History of the development
of non destructive technology
for fruits and vegetables in
Thailand
•Trend of future development

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Problems
•Durian (King of fruits)
1. Harvest: proper maturity
2. Consumer: proper ripeness
•Mangosteen (Queen of fruits)
1. Translucency
2. Yellow gum

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Durian maturity indices
•Days after blossom
•Tapping sound
•Stem related characteristics
•Thorn strength
•Color etc.

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Mangosteen defect
inspection
•Cut open and wrap
up with tape
•Specific gravity

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DURIAN: Stem strength

The first research on non destructive testi

ng of fruit quality in Thailand was probably
conducted by Bundit
et al., in 1987 when durian maturity index
was objectively investigated. This was bas
ed on “The more mature the durian the g
reater its stem strength”.

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Durian maturity was determined by meas
uring the strength of the stem. By radia
lly compressing the stem with a flat plat
e at a constant rate, the maturity as des
cribed by Young’s modulus was quantified
.

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The deflection of the stem end was also
studied. By fixing one end and loading
the other end with constant load, the
end deflection as elasticity was showed
to be positively related to the maturity.

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 Acoustic response
In 1997 the impulse response technique
was used to follow the maturity stage of
durians growing on trees. The frequency
index f2ln(m2/3) (f is frequency and m is
mass calculated from volume)monotonous
ly reduced with maturity.

(Terdwongworakul et al., 1997) Kasetsart University

 X-ray computed tomography

Durian was scanned for the pulp image to

obtain CT numbers using the medical
X-ray computed tomography. The methods
were evaluated and compared to the sensory
test of the ripened pulp. The results showed
that there was significant correlation
between the maturity stages and the CT
numbers.

(Yantarasri et al., 1999) Kasetsart University

 Ultrasonic

Ultrasonic measurement was implemented

to quantify the gap between the pulp and t
he rind of durian in 2002. The gap is wider
for mature durian than the immature one.

(Chamnongthai et al., 2002) Kasetsart University

When ultrasonic signals are emitted into duri
an, some will return to the device. These sign
als are then compared against the standard si
gnals of mature and immature durian in order
to determine if the durian is mature or immat
ure.

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 Acoustic response and stem strength
Stepper motor control board
Pararell control board
Power supply unit A/D converter
6

Stepper motor
Ball screw 3
2 5
Strain gauge 4 7
Strain amplifier
Ball bearing Power supply unit
1

%Dm = 20.663 + 0.182A - 0.056RF

durian

(Neamsorn et al., 2004) Kasetsart University

 Mangosteen: Near infrared transmittance

Inspection of mangosteen translucency was pe

rformed by using near infrared at the wavelen
gth of 850 nm. A separation accuracy was abo
ut 70%.

(Boonrat et al., 1998) Kasetsart University

X-Ray and NMR

Yantarasri T, Sivasomboon C, Uthaibutra J,

Sornsrivichai J. X-Ray and NMR for
nondestructive internal quality evaluation of
Durian and Mangosteen fruits. International
Conference on Postharvest Science. Taupo:
New Zealand, 1996.

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Acoustic impulse response

The sound was recorded when tapping the

mangosteen. It was found that the impulse
response could be used to separate the
translucent mangosteen with the accuracy
of 71.1%. (Chusak, 2000)

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Mango: Elasticity
Chaowapradit (1996) measured the damping ch
aracteristics of the spring-attached plunger.
The plunger was released to hit the underside
of mango and the resultant free vibration was
produced. The quantified damped vibration w
as found to correlate with the ripeness of the
mango.

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Near infrared interactance
The NIR interactance was used to predict rip
e-stage eating quality of mango. The calibrati
on equations developed were sufficiently preci
se for determining DM and starch of hard gre
en mango fruit (SEP: 0.41 wt.% for DM, 1.71 w
t.% for starch).

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(Saranwong et al., 2004)
Pomelo: Image analysis
Wattanavichean and Aroonyadet (2003) meas
ured both size and density of oil glands from i
mages taken from pomelo surface. They foun
d that the average size and density of oil glan
ds had positive and negative quadratic correla
tion with pomelo age or maturity at R2 = 0.86 f
or both cases.

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 Fruits: Microwave technology

Wireless communication with microwave te

chnology was proposed for development of
fruit maturity detector. This on-going res
earch is based on the fact that fruits with
different stages of maturity have differe
nt electrical characteristics.

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(Krairuek et al., 2006)
As a result the microchip will be attached
on fruit surface developing on trees and
serve to transmit the maturity to the
receiver.

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Growing non destructive technique

Near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is pro

bably a growing non destructive technique
in Thailand. This statement could be justi
fied by the fact that there are at least fo
ur researchers who got PhD degrees about
NIRS. Three from Japan and one from Ge
rmany.

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In 2000, the Japan International Cooperation Agency
(JICA) donated the NIR instrument, model
InfraAnalyzer 500, to Agricultural and Agro-
Industrial Product Improvement Institute (KAPI),
Kasetsart university for the purpose of Research
Project for Agricultural plant Materials in Thailand.
Since then, KAPI has invited staffs of various
faculties to do the joint research as inter-faculty
project. Researches on dragon fruit, orange, durian
and so on are currently being conducted.

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Hopefully future achievement!

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Thanks for attention!

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