Abstract

The world production of chestnuts has significantly grown in recent decades. Consumer attitudes, increasingly turned towards healthy foods, show a greater interest in chestnuts due to their health benefits. Consequently, it is important to develop reliable methods for the selection of high-quality products, both from a qualitative and sensory point of view. In this study, Castanea spp. fruits from Italy, namely Sweet chestnut cultivar and the Marrone cultivar, were evaluated by an official panel, and the responses for sensory attributes were used to verify the correlation to the near-infrared spectra. Data fusion strategies have been applied to take advantage of the synergistic effect of the information obtained from NIR and sensory analysis. Large nuts, easy pellicle removal, chestnut aroma, and aromatic intensity render Marrone cv fruits suitable for both the fresh market and candying, i.e., marron glacé. Whereas, sweet chestnut samples, due to their characteristics, have the potential to be used for secondary food products, such as jam, mash chestnut, and flour. The research lays the foundations for a superior data fusion approach for chestnut identification in terms of classification sensitivity and specificity, in which sensory and spectral approaches compensate each other’s drawbacks, synergistically contributing to an excellent result.

Highlights

  • The genus Castanea belongs to the Fagaceae family and is found in southern Europe, eastern North America, northern Africa, Asia Minor, and eastern Asia

  • Food quality assessment is rapidly evolving as new consumer needs arise and new techniques and tools become available

  • The Sweet chestnut and Marrone cvs proved to be distinguished by all the physical properties and sensory traits

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Summary

Introduction

The genus Castanea belongs to the Fagaceae family and is found in southern Europe, eastern North America, northern Africa, Asia Minor, and eastern Asia. The most important species are Castanea sativa (Mill.) in Europe, Castanea dentata (Borkh) in America, Castanea crenata (Sieb et Zucc.) in Japan, and Castanea mollissima (Blume) in China and Korea [2]. Commonly known as European sweet chestnut, is distributed across several European countries, mainly in Italy, Spain, France, Greece, Portugal, and Turkey, with Italy having the largest area [3]. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization Statistical Database, the worldwide chestnut production is ~2.350 Tg. Chestnuts are mainly cultivated in China (1.965 Tg), Bolivia (84.00 Gg), Turkey (63.60 Gg), the Republic of Korea (53.385 Gg), and Italy (53.30 Gg) [4]

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