Analysis of peaches ripeness by an electronic nose and near-infrared spectroscopy

Total soluble sugar content (SSC) and firmness are the indicators that better match the consumer's perception of maturity, but they currently require a destructive measurement. In this work, an Electronic Nose and a Near Infrared Spectrometer have been used as non-destructive techniques to assess the ripeness state of peach samples. To evaluate the performance of the two techniques the electronic nose responses and the NIR spectra have been correlated with SSC and firmness values, measured by a refractometer and a penetrometer respectively. The data have been analysed by multivariate regression methods (MLR, PCR, PLS, Surface Response Modeling) and they gave good predictions results both for SSC and for firmness.