Espectroscopia infraroja per la qualitat de les fruites

Nowadays the food industry produces millions of tons of fruit, but a big part of it is wasted, either because it does not conform the consumer quality standards or because its state of maturity is not favorable. The fruit sector wants to ensure quality in fruit, both for direct consumption and for the production of fruit-based products. The traditional quality controls absorb time, money and need chemicals that affects the environment in a bad way. In this review we want to describe the use of infrared spectroscopy as an alternative for traditional quality control, also its performance and the applications that has in the fruit sector. The method is based on the examination of database documents (Google Scholar, WoS, Springer Link and FSTA) and other resources such as books and websites. As a result, the infrared (IR) technology can be used to extract information about the functional groups and the structure of the molecules through the vibrational energy of their bounds since each component with its molecular structure reacts to the light signal by reproducing a unique spectrum. In this way, a fruit can be analyzed without destroying it. Near infrared sensors (NIR) are the most used for food analysis for many reasons, but for to be able to understand the data from NIR sensors, chemometrics and specific models of multivariate regressions are needed. Aside quality control, chemometrics helps to make possible the prediction of the harvest date and the shelf life of the fruits, important data to reduce the food waste in this sector. The spectroscope instrument has been improving in precision, resolution, connectivity, and compaction. And now as an innovative tool we find the portable IR sensor, which offers readings in the field or during the storage, basically you can analyze the composition of the fruit anywhere with it. In conclusion, the NIR sensor is effective and reliable for on line fruit control and also facilitates to the producer the collection planning so that he can offer each fruit in its best ...