Non-destructive prediction of ready-to-eat kiwifruit firmness based on Fourier transform near-infrared spectroscopy

There is a growing demand for ready-to-eat kiwifruit in the world. However, ready-to-eat kiwifruit has a rather narrow range of firmness (e.g. 10–30 N), and it remains challenging to predict this firmness in a non-destructive manner. Here, we report a strategy for non-destructive prediction of kiwifruit firmness based on Fourier transform near-infrared (FT-NIR) spectroscopy. The radial basis function (RBF) model displayed superior performance, with a coefficient of determination (Rc2) of 0.83, a cross-validation coefficient of determination (Rp2) of 0.73, a root mean square error of calibration (RMSEC) of 0.58, a root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) of 0.72, and a ratio of performance to deviation (RPD) of 1.92. To enhance the accuracy of kiwifruit firmness prediction, we optimized the FT-NIR algorithm through data preprocessing, feature selection, and dimensionality reduction. The results showed that the FD-CARS-SVR (RBF) algorithm exhibited the best performance in predicting kiwifruit firmness during the shelf life with impressive values of Rc2 (0.99), Rp2 (0.92), RMSEC (0.15), RMSEP (0.40), and RPD (3.48). To further evaluate the applicability of the FT-NIR model, we compared the data predicted by the model and acquired from the Kiwifirm™ and penetrometer GY-4. The results revealed pronounced superiority of the FT-NIR model for the firmness ranging from 10 to 40 N to replace Kiwifirm™, providing a new non-destructive model for the prediction of the firmness of ready-to-eat kiwifruit.