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Electronic Sensing of Aromatic Volatiles for Quality Sorting of Blueberries
Author(s) -
SIMON JAMES E.,
HETZRONI AMOTS,
BORDELON BRUCE,
MILES GAINES E.,
CHARLES DENYS J.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
journal of food science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.772
H-Index - 150
eISSN - 1750-3841
pISSN - 0022-1147
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2621.1996.tb10912.x
Subject(s) - ripeness , titratable acid , berry , chemistry , ripening , horticulture , food science , cultivar , biology
An electronic sniffer using semi‐conductor gas sensors that nondestructively measured aromatic volatile gas emissions from fruit was developed to assess blueberry quality. The sniffer detected soft and damaged fruit in packaged containers at a 5% level of damage and distinguished four of five fruit ripeness classes: (1) mature‐green and green‐pink; (2) blue‐pink; (3) blue; and (4) ripe fruit. Sniffer response increased as fruit ripened, as did total concentration of aromatic volatiles. Sniffer response correlated with berry firmness, pH, titratable acidity, and color, and detected differences among 10 cultivars, as did impact response analysis. The electronic sniffer is rapid, nondestructive and may be used to sort and quality check for presence of unripe or damaged fruit in closed packs of fresh berries.