Non-Destructive Soluble Solids Content Determination for 'Rocha' Pear Based on VIS-SWNIR Spectroscopy under 'Real World' Sorting Facility Conditions

In this paper we report a method to determine the soluble solids content (SSC) of 'Rocha' pear (Pyrus communis L. cv. Rocha) based on their short-wave NIR reflectance spectra (500-1100 nm) measured in conditions similar to those found in packinghouse fruit sorting facilities. We obtained 3300 reflectance spectra from pears acquired from different lots, producers and with diverse storage times and ripening stages. The macroscopic properties of the pears, such as size, temperature and SSC were measured under controlled laboratory conditions. For the spectral analysis, we implemented a computational pipeline that incorporates multiple pre-processing techniques including a feature selection procedure, various multivariate regression models and three different validation strategies. This benchmark allowed us to find the best model/preproccesing procedure for SSC prediction from our data. From the several calibration models tested, we have found that Support Vector Machines provides the best predictions metrics with an RMSEP of around 0.82 degrees Brix and 1.09 degrees Brix for internal and external validation strategies respectively. The latter validation was implemented to assess the prediction accuracy of this calibration method under more 'real world-like' conditions. We also show that incorporating information about the fruit temperature and size to the calibration models improves SSC predictability. Our results indicate that the methodology presented here could be implemented in existing packinghouse facilities for single fruit SSC characterization.