Journal of the science of food and agriculture | 2021
Nutritional composition changes in bell pepper as affected by the ripening stage of fruits at harvest or postharvest storage and assessed non-destructively.
Abstract
BACKGROUND\nNutritional quality in bell pepper is related to the ripening stage of fruit at harvest and postharvest storage and its determination require time-consuming, tissue destructive, analytical laboratory techniques. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of ripening stage and of postharvest storage period on fruit nutritional quality, as well whether it is feasible to develop reliable models for assessing the nutritional components in peppers non-destructive methods. The dry matter, soluble solids, ascorbic acid, phenolics, chlorophylls, carotenoids and the total antioxidant capacity were determined in bell pepper fruits at six ripening stages, from green to full red, during storage at 10°C for 8\u2009days. Color, chlorophyll fluorescence, Vis/NIR spectroscopy, R-G-B and R-G-NIR digital imaging were tested for assessing the nutritional quality of peppers.\n\n\nRESULTS\nThe nutritional composition was mainly affected by the ripening stage of bell pepper fruits at harvest and only in a low degree by the storage period. Indeed, the more advanced ripening stage of fruit at harvest resulted in superior nutritional quality. Most of the non-destructive techniques reliably predicted fruit internal quality. The genetic algorithm (GA), the variable importance in projection (VIP) scores and the variable inflation factor (VIF) tests identified 9 distinct regions and 4 specific wavelengths of the whole Vis/NIR electromagnetic spectrum that exhibit the highest significance in the assessment of the nutritional components.\n\n\nCONCLUSION\nIt is possible to reliably predict individual nutritional components in bell pepper fruit non-destructively and irrespectively of the ripening stage of fruits at harvest. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.