Non-destructive technologies for fruit and vegetable size determination - a review

Here, we review different methods for non-destructive horticultural produce size determination, focusing on electronic technologies capable of measuring fruit volume. The usefulness of produce size estimation is justified and a comprehensive classification system of the existing electronic techniques to determine dimensional size is proposed. The different systems identified are compared in terms of their versatility, precision and throughput. There is general agreement in considering that online measurement of axes, perimeter and projected area has now been achieved. Nevertheless, rapid and accurate volume determination of irregular-shaped produce, as needed for density sorting, has only become available in the past few years. An important application of density measurement is soluble solids content (SSC) sorting. If the range of SSC in the batch is narrow and a large number of classes are desired, accurate volume determination becomes important. A good alternative for fruit three-dimensional surface reconstruction, from which volume and surface area can be computed, is the combination of height profiles from a range sensor with a two-dimensional object image boundary from a solid-state camera (brightness image) or from the range sensor itself (intensity image). However, one of the most promising technologies in this field is 3-D multispectral scanning, which combines multispectral data with 3-D surface reconstructio

Characterization of Southeast Asia mangoes (Mangifera indica L) according to their physicochemical attributes

Mango (Mangifera indica L.) is an economically important fruit crop grown in the tropics. One of the important traits of mango for successful commercial production is the storage quality of the fruit. This study was conducted to evaluate the postharvest qualities of three mango (Mangifera indica) varieties namely ‘Chokanan’, ‘Golden phoenix’ and ‘Water lily’ grown in Southeast Asia regions. The study found that variety and ripening stage had an impact on the postharvest qualities. In general, an increase in weight loss, L* value and soluble solids concentration (SSC) along with a reduction in titratable acidity (TA), firmness and hue value as ripening progressed were observed irrespective of the variety. Analysis of variance and multivariate analysis were used to characterize the ripening process. This study provides useful information for devising strategies in postharvest handling and implementation of breeding programs for mango crop improvement

Realized response of Thai red tilapia to weight-specific selection for growth

Mass selection and weight specific selection techniques were used to study growth in Thai red Tilapia and to determine selection response and realized heritability. In mass selection at the age of 14 weeks, the largest 10% of each population of 500 fish were selected. The growth performance of the selected line was compared to that of the unselected (control) line. In weight-specific selection, fish were selected once at 6 weeks to have approximately the same standard weight, then were selected a second time based on their relation growth rate between weeks 6 and 14. Weight and length of the selected line was greater then that of the control in every generation. The selected line was 29.7% heavier and 9.88% longer than the control line after 2 generations of weight-specific selection..

Comparison of Package Cushioning Materials to Protect Post-harvest Impact Damage to Apples

Damage to fruits and vegetables continues to be a big challenge as global markets become a reality. Worldwide distribution of sensitive produce is faced with various levels of impacts from shipping and handling. Despite a variety of packaging options available today, bruising damage is commonplace for post-harvest apples throughout the supply chain. The major sources of bruising are compression, impact or vibration forces. Understanding where these forces occur can help reduce this type of mechanical damage to apples. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact characteristics of foam net and corrugated board when applied as wrapping for individual apples. Two grades (count numbers 80 and 100) of “Fuji” cultivar apples imported to Thailand from China were studied. A simple ballistic pendulum test device was developed to measure bruise volume to impact energy relationship. A linear relationship for both types of apples was observed. Bruise volume occurrence probability and impact energy relationship fitted by linear regression were created for cushioned and bare apples. Absorbed energy of various cushioning materials was also calculated under compressive forces