Abstract
Comprehensive food chain management requires the monitoring of many parameters including temperature, humidity, and multiple gases. The latter is highly challenging because no low-cost technology for the simultaneous chemical analysis of multiple gaseous components currently exists. This contribution proposes the use of cavity enhanced Raman spectroscopy to enable online monitoring of all relevant components using a single laser source. A laboratory scale setup is presented and characterized in detail. Power enhancement of the pump light is achieved in an optical resonator with a Finesse exceeding 2500. A simulation for the light scattering behavior shows the influence of polarization on the spatial distribution of the Raman scattered light. The setup is also used to measure three relevant showcase gases to demonstrate the feasibility of the approach, including carbon dioxide, oxygen and ethene.
Highlights
Even though the food industry is highly competitive and cost-aware, the loss of fresh produce amounts to about 30% [1]
-called climacteric fruits, such as tomatoes and bananas [5], can be regulated well using environmental parameters [1,5,6]. In this case ethene may be used to control cellular respiration and the oxygen usage and the associated release of carbon dioxide. These fruits release ethene when ripening, which makes a control of the process paramount for long-term storage [7,8]
A home-built external cavity diode laser (ECDL) based on the design by Ricci et al [72] is used as light source
Summary
Even though the food industry is highly competitive and cost-aware, the loss of fresh produce (vegetables and fruits) amounts to about 30% [1]. The control of the gaseous atmosphere surrounding fresh food allows for inhibiting bacterial growth and tailoring the ripening process. To this end, nitrogen (N2 ), oxygen (O2 ), carbon dioxide (CO2 ), and ethene (C2 H4 ) play a central role, since they may be used to regulate the aging process, prolong storage times, and deliver high quality products on-demand. -called climacteric fruits, such as tomatoes and bananas [5], can be regulated well using environmental parameters [1,5,6] In this case ethene may be used to control cellular respiration and the oxygen usage and the associated release of carbon dioxide. Any suitable technology will need to be able to monitor the parameters across different chains, including production, packaging, and transportation
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