Prediction of fruit quality based on the RGB values of time-temperature indicator

摘要

Time-temperature indicators (TTIs) are cost-efficient tools that may be used to predict food quality. In this paper, a diffusion TTI was used to predict fruit quality during storage. Both the color changing characters of TTI and the quality parameters, including weight loss, soluble solids content, vitamin C content, titratable acidity, and antioxidant capacity of three kinds of fruits (kiwifruit, strawberry, and mango), were investigated for storage temperatures (5, 10, 15, and 20 °C). The relationships between the color changing properties and fruit quality parameters have been built based on the activation energy (E_a). The results showed that the storage temperature and time had significant effects on the color changing of TTI and fruit quality. The RGB value of TTI decreased with time, and the higher the storage temperature, the faster the RGB value reduced. Also, the higher the storage temperature, the faster the fruit quality changed and the poorer they were. Furthermore, all of the differences of E_a between TTI color response and fruit quality change are less than 25 kJ/mol, which indicates that the TTI can be used to predict these fruit quality. Finally, prediction models were built and validated based on the RGB values of TTI. It provides the possibility for low-cost quality monitoring and has more application potential in food quality predicting.