Food science articles
Saving on Energy with Ethylene Management
Storing fruits and vegetables at low temperatures to extend storage time is standard practice in food supply chains. Low temperatures serve to delay senescence in non-climacteric fruits. However, refrigeration is energy intensive and there is a need to find an alternate method to store fresh produce to reduce the carbon footprint of food production. Reducing… Continue reading…
Building a ‘Kent’ Mango Firmness Model with NIR Spectroscopy
An increase in the import of mangos into Europe makes it necessary to find accurate and rapid methods of testing ripeness. Though subjective, firmness is one of the oldest and most intuitive means of judging fruit ripeness. Emerging work with NIR spectrometers can make this subjective process more objective and help in establishing the correct… Continue reading…
Grade “A” Apples: Water Relations in Apple Rootstocks and Scion Influence Fruit Yield and Quality
Rootstocks could influence not only yield and vigor, but also water relations in scions. Water relations in rootstocks and scions play an important role in growing apple trees. However, it is not clear if hydraulics is influenced by xylem vessels’ characteristics and how it happens. Knowing more could help in finding apple rootstocks better suited… Continue reading…
Dry Matter: The Key to Kiwifruit
Kiwifruit has become commercially popular world-wide in the past four decades. The growing demand makes long transport and storage times inevitable. Dry matter is a reliable parameter to control harvest time and quality for many fruits. In the case of kiwifruits, dry matter provides additional insights that have helped to shape best practices for kiwifruit… Continue reading…
Reviving Rambutan: Practical Treatment Assessment with Gas Analysis
Several physiological processes, including respiration, affect the quality and shelf life of fruit. The tropical fruit rambutan is an important cash crop. However, little research has been done on improving their postharvest quality. Recently, a group of scientists endeavored to use non-destructive gas analysis to explore potential postharvest treatments that could be useful in extending… Continue reading…
Kiwifruit: From Blossom to Stem
Kiwifruit is a relatively new commodity on the world stage, only growing popular within the last seventy years. These days, however, the fruit’s popularity and importance in international trade are well established, leading to increasing cultivation in reigons around the world. The use of kiwifruit is set to rise due to its nutritional and nutraceutical… Continue reading…
Respiration and Pest Management in Grain Storage
Developing countries lose disproportionate amounts of grain due to insect attacks during storage. In the search for efficient solutions suitable for varying budgets, a team of Indian scientists investigated grain storage methods for black gram crops. Since respiration is the major physiological process during storage, it was not surprising that carbon dioxide and oxygen measurements… Continue reading…
FRUITNIR-GUI: Helping Users Improve Model Performance
As the use of precision technology increases in food production, it is necessary to ensure that the devices are adapted to the entire range of environmental conditions under which a single fruit is grown. A new, free software makes it easy for people to improve the NIRS models used to analyze near-Infrared spectroscopy data that… Continue reading…
Predictive Modeling for Palmer Mango | NIRS & Mango Maturity
Mango varieties are exported around the world for their special flavors. A mango that is not ripe and sweet will not meet consumer expectations, regardless of how exotic the variety is. Harvesting fruits at the time suitable for each variety is crucial to ensure the final quality. To decide harvest time, maturity indices in portable… Continue reading…
All About ANN – Artificial Neural Networks and Chemometric Modeling for NIR Spectroscopy
Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) are nonlinear models used in chemometrics that simulate the functioning of the neural network of human brains. Combined with Partial Least Square Regression models scores, these are used for machine learning and have important applications in many major industries and sectors, including food production. Chemometrics for Near-Infrared Spectroscopy The near-infrared spectrum… Continue reading…
