The total soluble solid concentration is deeply connected to sweetness, organoleptic qualities and the enjoyment of consumers. Most of them prefer Hayward kiwis with a sugar level above 14° Brix.
Flesh firmness is an important indicator of post-harvesting shelf-life. In New Zealand, the minimum firmness must be 9.81 N to guarantee a reasonable shelf-life and enable transport to different markets.
According to a study published on 6th January on the online Journal of Food Engineering, predicting the total soluble solid concentration and flesh firmness with non-destructive techniques such as VIS-NIR spectroscopy would enable the strategic marketing of kiwis.
"Although these models enables us to predict total soluble solid concentration and flesh firmness, the accuracy is not as yet useful for the processing line, especially for what concerns sorting, as we still have to work on reducing the prediction error," explain the researchers.
Source: Mo Li, R.R. Pullanagari, T. Pranamornkith, I.J. Yule, Andrew East, 'Quantitative prediction of post storage 'Hayward' kiwifruit attributes using at harvest Vis-NIR spectroscopy', 2017, Journal of Food Engineering, doi: 10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2017.01.002, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S026087741730002X