Non-invasive, real time in-situ techniques to determine the ripening stage of banana

Abstract Bananas were examined starting from ripening stage R2 (green) to R7 (overripe), identify suitable non-invasive, real time in-situ technologies separate the stages: (1) Chlorophyll degradation, measured by DA meter, decreased ca. 2.1 (R2) 0.2 IAD units (R7), i.e. tenfold decline. (2) Colour CIE-Lab a values dramatically increased as indication of chlorophyll breakdown and enable differentiation between all stages R7. angles declined 98.7° hue (R2), 97.3° (R3), 92.7° (R4), 89.4° (R5); 87.5° (R6) until 82.0° (R7). (3) Spectroscopy showed two light reflectance troughs at 494 nm 679 nm. A novel banana index (BRI) was developed is proposed distinguish with 4 R1 peaking 8.1 (4) Peel gloss (150 a.u.) (220 in order 50% followed subsequent decrease thereafter. (5) softening fruit firmness dropped 82 Shore 42 also centre fruit. (6) After constant 90.5% water content per fresh mass (FM) peel R5, drop 82.9% FM 7.6% translocation viz displacement pulp explained this softening. All above results identified (rather than tip) candidate due most advanced least curved surface region easy access, when carton opened hands become accessible. This approach based on comparison has shown DA-meter, colorimeter spectrometer candidates for identification each stage. The combination these three devices may be monitoring rooms terms temperature humidity addition present, colour-based scale.