ASSESSMENT OF MINIMALLY PROCESSED APPLES WITH THE APPLICATION OF EDIBLE FILMS THROUGH BIOSPECKLE

The search for food practicity has been increasing among consumers. Thus, minimally processed food, i.e. fresh products previously cut, washed, sanitised, and packed, gains market adding value to rural producers. Many of those products may be coated with edible films in order to keep their quality through the reduction of the deterioration processes. This study aims to assess the quality of fresh, cut apples, coated and not with edible films through traditional techniques and through the Biospeckle, whose main principle consists of the lighting of a biological material for the acquisition of images to be processed; from those images, it is possible to obtain information on the activity of the analysed material and use them for the conclusions. The acquired images are interference patterns generated through the interaction between the light and the biological material. Traditional methods will be correlated in order to verify the quality of the apples.