A review on recent advanced spoilage detection techniques for fruits and vegetables

Spoilage of vegetables and fruits is an area of global concern, causing various health-related problems and resulting in higher economic losses for the fruits and vegetables production sector. Spoilage may rise from insect damage, enzyme activity and physical damage by microbial contamination. Although some techniques and detection methods for determining spoilage are currently available and the conventional approaches have significant restrictions and disadvantages, such as they are time-consuming, laborious and relatively high-cost. This review article concentrated on the recently developed techniques and the applications of various multi-sensor systems in the food sector. The main objective is to provide a problem-oriented look at the spoilage of fruits and vegetables, its detection and how to control it by different methods. Furthermore, these studies also explore various aspects of spoilage along with rapid spoilage detection techniques for fruits and vegetables. Some of the innovative recent techniques as biosensors, electronic noses, electronic tongues, smartphone-based technologies to avert the deterioration, early detection of spoilage and prolong the shelf life. These spoilage detection techniques offer great potential for microbial detection with the rapid development of science and technology and computer vision techniques to the development of the horticultural field.