Evaluating the practicability of commercial food-scanners for non-destructive quality assessment of tomato fruit

The assessment of tomato fruit quality depends on a variety of extrinsic and intrinsic quality parameters such as color, firmness and sugar content. Conventional measurement methods of these quality parameters are time consuming, require various measurement devices, and in case of intrinsic quality, involve destructive measurements. Latest research focused on the non-destructive determination of these parameters by using spectroscopic measurements. The goal of this study was to evaluate the capability of three commercial-
ly available portable and miniaturized VIS/NIR spectrometers, so
called food-scanners, in predicting various tomato quality attributes in a non-destructive way. Additionally, this study evaluated the software provided by manufacturers for building of prediction models by comparing the results derived from those software tools to state-of-the-art software for multivariate analysis. Evaluation of food-scanner spectra resulted in prediction models of high accuracy (r² > 0.90) for tomato fruit firmness, dry matter, total soluble solids and color values L*, a* and h°. Prediction models computed with manufacturer’s software showed similar accuracy to those derived from state-of-the-art evaluation software. Results of this study illustrate the great potential of commercial food-scanners for non-destructive quality measurement. Further important features of food-scanners with respect to the application along the fresh produce supply chain are addressed.