USE OF DIFFERENT NONDESTRUCTIVE TECHNIQUES TO EVALUATE VEGETABLE QUALITY

Abstract

Several methods have been used to detect external and internal quality of vegetables, but almost all of the methods are destructive. So interest has developed to evaluate both external and internal quality of vegetables by nondestructive methods which are fast, non-labor intensive and inexpensive. Researchers have been working to find techniques for evaluating external and internal quality factors of vegetables nondestructively by measuring physical, acoustic, electrical, optical, X-ray, fluorescent and nuclear magnetic resonant properties. Most of these techniques can detect certain physical properties of vegetables and hence they are suitable only for evaluating specific quality factors. The principles of different techniques for nondestructive quality evaluation as applied to a wide range of vegetables and the importance of the techniques are explained. Examples of the successful application of different nondestructive techniques which can be used for evaluation of different quality attributes such as color, ripening, senescence, shelf life, maturity, moisture content, chilling injury, dry matter content, frost injury, starch content, firmness, internal defects, and soluble solids content are illustrated. The major advantages of using nondestructive techniques are rapidity and non-labor-intensiveness.