Determination of soluble solids content in apple products by terahertz time-domain spectroscopy

Abstract

Soluble solids content is an important index for fruit quality. One of the traditional methods in determining soluble solids content of fruits is refractometry which measures the refractive index in visible or near infrared. Here we reported the use of terahertz time-domain transmission spectroscopy (THz-TDTS) technique for the determination of soluble solids content in apple products. Not only the refractive index, but also the absorption coefficient is used in regression model. In method one, sucrose solutions were for the calibration set , root mean square of validation set (RMSEP) was 0.168% for absorption coefficient model, 0.741% for refractive index model. In method two, apple products were for the calibration set, RMSEP was 0.143% for absorption coefficient model, 0.648% for refractive index model. Less absolute error of 0.2% between predicted and refractometer value has been both obtained from two methods with absorption coefficient model. This result proved the THz-TDS technique is quite potential for nondestructive detection on food quality.