Non-destructive quality control of kiwi fruits by hyperspectral imaging

This study aimed to evaluate the possibility to perform a fast, reliable and robust non-destructive monitoring of kiwifruits characteristics adopting an HyperSpectral Imaging (HSI) based approach. HSI was thus utilized for two different purposes: i) to test whether the postharvest ripeness of kiwifruits could be non-destructively determined and ii) for the diagnosis of pseudomonas infection in the Kiwi orchards. To reach the 1st goal (i.e. fruit ripening evaluation) a NIR Spectral Camera acting in the range between 900 and 1700 nm has been used. To reach the 2nd goal a hyperspectral camera working in the VIS-NIR range (400 nm – 1000 nm) was used. For both the approaches only significance and robustness of the collected data, in respect of the selected operative conditions, was investigated and the results have been evaluated in terms of different Principal Components (PC) images.