Differentiation of post harvest date fruit varieties non‐destructively using FT ‐ NIR spectroscopy

Summary The world production of dates has more than doubled over the last two decades. Presently, the industrial sorting of dates is a difficult operation, affected by a high level of losses. As a consequence, the objective of this article is to study the variety discrimination capabilities of F ourier T ransform‐ N ear I nfrared ( FT ‐ NIR ) reflectance spectroscopy for post‐harvest sorting purposes. The same methodology was tested on six commercial date varieties named E stamaran, Kabkab, M azafati, P iarom, D eglet nour and Z ahedi. For each cultivar, 100 fruits were analysed using the FT ‐ NIR spectrometer, subsequently characterised by destructive measurements. A multivariate analysis of the FT ‐ NIR spectra appears a feasible tool for cultivar discrimination and even to estimate the soluble solid content ( SSC ) and dry matter ( DM ) of dates at their optimal harvesting conditions. FT ‐ NIR , as a non‐destructive techniques, could be a suitable way for on‐line screening of different dates varieties.