Using spectral information and machine vision for bruise detection on peaches and apricots

R. Zwiggelaar, Q. Yang, E. Garcia-Pardo and C.R. Bull, 'Using spectral information and machine vision for bruise detection on peaches and apricots', Journal of Agricultural Engineering Research 63 (4), 323-332 1996)

Residues of Some Pesticides in Fresh and Dried Apricots

The persistence of three pesticides (fenitrothion, dimethoate, and ziram) in apricots in field conditions and their fate during the drying process were studied. After the treatments, the pesticides showed fast decay rates with pseudo-first-order kinetics and half-lives ranging from 6.9 to 9.9 days. The drying process showed a different effect on residue concentrations in dried apricots: omethoate (metabolite of dimethoate) and ziram residues had almost doubled, while fenitrothion disappeared and dimethoate remained constant.

Ceratocystis canker of prunes, almonds and apricots /

Mode of access: Internet.

Applicazioni industriali e di ricerca della spettroscopia NIR per la valutazione di indici qualitativi di prodotti alimentari

In the present work qualitative aspects of products that fall outside the classic Italian of food production view will be investigated, except for the apricot, a fruit, however, less studied by the methods considered here. The development of computer systems and the advanced software systems dedicated for statistical processing of data, has permitted the application of advanced technologies including the analysis of niche products. The near-infrared spectroscopic analysis was applied to the chemical industry for over twenty years and, subsequently, was applied in food industry with great success for non-destructive in line and off-line analysis. The work that will be presented below range from the use of spectroscopy for the determination of some rheological indices of ice cream applications to the characterization of the main quality indices of apricots, fresh dates, determination of the production areas of pistachio. Next to the spectroscopy will be illustrated different methods of multivariate analysis for spectra interpretation or for the construction of qualitative models of estimation. The thesis is divided into four separate studies that consider the same number of products. Each one of it is introduced by its own premise and ended with its own bibliography. This studies are preceded by a general discussion on the state of art and the basics of NIR spectroscopy.

Evaluación de características de interés agronómico de damascos cv. Modesto

El cultivar de damascos Modesto es de introducción relativamente reciente en Mendoza (Argentina). El objetivo del trabajo fue evaluar las siguientes características de interés agronómico: la época de floración y la calidad de los frutos en cosecha y en postcosecha. El estudio se realizó en un monte comercial durante 2007 y 2008. Se registraron tres estados fenológicos: "D" (corola visible), "F" (flor abierta) y "H" (fruto cuajado). Se estableció el inicio de la floración, la plena floración y el fin de la misma. En los frutos las evaluaciones y mediciones se realizaron en el momento de la recolección y después del período de maduración de la fruta conservada en cámara frigorífica. Se determinó: color de fondo, peso, diámetro, firmeza de pulpa, contenido de sólidos solubles, pH, acidez titulable, presencia de hongos y desórdenes fisiológicos. Los resultados muestran que el cultivar Modesto florece en una época intermedia en la zona E de la provincia de Mendoza. La fecha de plena floración en los dos años del estudio fue el 8 de setiembre. En los estados de madurez evaluados los frutos reúnen los atributos de calidad demandados por el consumidor: alto CSS, color anaranjado en la madurez, buena firmeza de pulpa; sin embargo, el rápido, descenso de la firmeza durante la maduración en poscosecha obliga a una comercialización acelerada. Después del almacenamiento en cámara frigorífica durante treinta días y un período de maduración de dos días, la futa presentó el desorden harinosidad con una incidencia superior al 60%; esto señala que el cv. Modesto no puede almacenarse por un período tan prolongado.

Actual state of the mechanization of harvest of fruits and vegetables in Spain.

A review of the actual methods of harvest of fruits and vegetables in Spain is made. Special emphasis is given to the main horticultural Spanish crops that can be harvested by machines like green, beans, green peas broad beans, tomatoes, lettuces and chufas, as vegetables, and olives almonds, cherries, apples pears apricots, etc. as fruits.

Models for the prediction of handling damage in citrus and peaches grading lines, related to their physical properties.

Fruit damage during harvesting and handling is a standing problem, particularly for susceptible fruits like peaches and apricots. The resulting mechanical damage is a combination of fruit properties and damage inflicting effects due to procedures and to the equipment. Nine packing lines in the region of Murcia (SE Spain) have been tested with the aid of two different-size electronic fruits IS-100. Probabilities of impacts above three preset thresholds (50 g's, 100 g's and 150 g's) were calculated for each transfer point. Interaction fruit-packing line tests have been also performed in order to study the real incidence of packing lines on natural produce: apricots (1 variety), peaches (3 v.), lemons (1 v.) and oranges (3 v.). Bruises of handled and not handled samples of fruits were compared.

New version of a laboratory impact device for firmness sensing of fruits.

Results of previous studies conducted by different researchers have shown that impact techniques can be used to evaluate firmness (Delwiche et al., 1989; Delwiche et al.;1996; Jaren et al., 1992; Ruiz Altisent et al., 1996). To impact the fruit with a small spherical impactor of known mass and radius of curvature and measure the acceleration of the impactor is a technique described by Chen et al. (1985) and used by several researchers for sensing fruit firmness (Jaren et al., 1992; Correa et al.; 1992). The advantages of this method vs. a force sensor that measures the force as a function of time is that the measured impact-acceleration response is independent of the fruit mass and is less sensitive to the variation in the radius of curvature of the fruit (Chen et al., 1996). Ruiz Altisent et al. (1993) developed and used a 50 g impactor with a 19 mm diameter spherical tip, dropping from different height for fruits (apples, pears, avocados, melons, peaches ...). Another impact device for firmness sensing of fruits was developed by Chen and Ruiz Altisent (1996). They designed and fabricated an experimental low-mass impact sensor for high-speed sensing of fruit firmness. The impactor consisted of a semi-spherical impacting tip attached to the end (near the centre of percussion) of a pivoting arm. Impact is done by swinging the impactor to collide with the fruit. It has been implemented for on-line use. In both devices a small accelerometer is mounted behind the impacting tip. Lateral impactor and vertical impactor have been used in laboratory and the results from non-destructive impact tests have contributed to standardise methods to measure fruit firmness: Barreiro (1992) compared impact parameters and results of Magness-Taylor penetration tests for apples, pears, apricots [and peaches; Agulheiro (1994) studied the behaviour of the impact parameters during seven weeks of cold storage of two melon varieties; Ortiz (1998) used low energy impact and NIR procedures to segregate non crispy, non firm and soft peaches. Steinmetz (1996) compared various non-destructive firmness sensors, based on sound, impact and micro-deformation.