Advances in Non-Destructive Early Assessment of Fruit Ripeness towards Defining Optimal Time of Harvest and Yield Prediction—A Review
NIAB EMR, East Malling, Kent ME19 6BJ, UK
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Plants 2018, 7(1), 3; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants7010003
Received: 7 December 2017 / Revised: 5 January 2018 / Accepted: 8 January 2018 / Published: 10 January 2018
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Crop Enhancement for Global Food Security)
Global food security for the increasing world population not only requires increased sustainable production of food but a significant reduction in pre- and post-harvest waste. The timing of when a fruit is harvested is critical for reducing waste along the supply chain and increasing fruit quality for consumers. The early in-field assessment of fruit ripeness and prediction of the harvest date and yield by non-destructive technologies have the potential to revolutionize farming practices and enable the consumer to eat the tastiest and freshest fruit possible. A variety of non-destructive techniques have been applied to estimate the ripeness or maturity but not all of them are applicable for in situ (field or glasshouse) assessment. This review focuses on the non-destructive methods which are promising for, or have already been applied to, the pre-harvest in-field measurements including colorimetry, visible imaging, spectroscopy and spectroscopic imaging. Machine learning and regression models used in assessing ripeness are also discussed.
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Keywords:
pre-harvest; ripeness; image analysis; machine learning; fruit phenotyping
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MDPI and ACS Style
Li, B.; Lecourt, J.; Bishop, G. Advances in Non-Destructive Early Assessment of Fruit Ripeness towards Defining Optimal Time of Harvest and Yield Prediction—A Review. Plants 2018, 7, 3.
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