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 (R2c ) of 0.83, a cross-validation coefficient of determination (R2p) 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 R2 c (0.99), R2p (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 KiwifirmTM 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 KiwifirmTM, providing a new non-destructive model for the prediction of the firmness of ready-to-eat kiwifruit.