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Development of laser-based spectrometers

Fruit monitoring in storage

he fresh produce supply chain is highly unsustainable worldwide: 33% of the produced fruit and vegetables is either lost or wasted, of which 10% occurs during long-term storage. Today, controlled atmosphere (CA) storage facilities are quite common, i.e., storage at lowered temperatures, low oxygen concentrations and elevated CO2 levels. Metabolic processes in CA-stored products, like fruits and vegetables, are slowed down and thus ripening and aging are delayed. Research into these processes is very important to further optimize storage conditions. The monitoring of trace gases released by the stored crop gives information on these processes, e.g., on their fermentative state, ripening phase and potential damage. High levels of metabolic products may serve as an indicator to optimize the CA conditions. Thus, ethanol and acetaldehyde are indicative for the fermentation, ethylene also accompanies ripening of fruits, ethane and pentane are gaseous end products of lipid peroxidation. The instrumentation available at the Facility allows to study the dynamics of the volatile organic compounds released under any storage conditions. The information on the methodology and the scientific results are presented in multiple published articles [1,2]. A previously built prototype was built within the EU-funded project: QCAP Interreg (2017-2019), and it has demonstrated proof-of performance in the relevant research environment.

Further development of the system was done within the MAX-FRESH project. ISS Monitor is the world’s first automated multi-species trace gas sensor that can simultaneously and in real-time detect low levels of seven volatile gases that indicate ripening, fermentation, damage or rotting of stored fruit. Once unfavorable conditions are detected, the ISS-Monitor will provide automated alerts to enable timely and effective interventions by its customers. The ISS-Monitor has the potential to reduce losses of stored fresh food by 50%, extend storage life with 20%, and reduce post-harvest chemical treatments with 50%.

More about this research?
  1. K. Eslami Jahromi, et al., Fourier transform and grating-based spectroscopy with a mid-infrared supercontinuum source for trace gas detection in fruit quality monitoring, Optics Express 29 (8), 2021
  2. K. Eslami Jahromi, et al., Sensitive multi-species trace gas sensor based on a high repetition rate mid-infrared supercontinuum source, Optics Express 28 (18), 2020