P-02

Calibration model of soluble solids content for Intact Tomato by

Transmittance SW-NIR Spectroscopy
Sontisuk Teerachaichayut,* Kanyapat Petcharaporn1 and Sineenart Suktanarak1
1
King Mongkuts Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, Bangkok, 10520 Thailand,
E-mail: ktsontis@kmitl.ac.th
Abstract
Internal quality of tomato based on soluble solids content (SSC) was considered for non-destructive prediction
using transmittance short wavelength near infrared (SW-NIR) spectroscopy in the wavelength range of 665-955 nm. A
set of 180 samples (126 samples for a training set and 54 samples for a test set) was measured in this research. Partial
least squares regression (PLSR) was used to establish calibration models. Spectral pretreatments of smoothing
(SavitskyGolay) obtained optimal result to develop a calibration model for SSC prediction (R = 0.927, RMSEC =
0.287). The calibration model obtained high accuracy for prediction by the test set (R = 923, RMSEP = 0.319). The
results showed that transmittance SW-NIR spectroscopy can be a non-destructive technique for prediction of soluble
solids content in intact tomato.
Keywords: tomato, quality, prediction, transmittance and non-destructive
Introduction
Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) is important vegetable which is used as raw material in food industry for
manufactured products such as tomato sauce, ketchup, tomato paste, tomato juice etc. Quality of finished products was
related to the qualities of raw material. For quality control, a fast, reliable, non-destructive method to inspect internal
qualities of individual tomato is required for on-line process. Soluble solids content is one of the main components
relevant in the flavor of tomato (A.1). In recent years, reflectance near infrared spectroscopy is reported that can be
used for prediction of soluble solids content in intact tomato (X et al.3; Y et al.4; K et al.2). Hence, transmittance short
wavelength near infrared spectroscopy is considered to detect the soluble solids content of intact tomato in this research.
Materials and Methods
Sample
A set of 180 tomatoes was purchased from local fruit auction in Thailand. Samples of color and size with good
appearances were used in this research.
Spectral acquisition
Four spectral measurements of each sample were done around the equator in every 90o by using the
transmittance SW-NIR (665-955 nm) spectrophotometer (PureSpect, Saika TIF., Japan). Each tomato was blended and
then filtered in order to obtain tomato juice for chemical measurement. SCC of each sample was measured using a
digital refractometer (PR101, Palette Series, Atago Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan).
Data analysis
For data analysis, 126 samples were used for the training set and 54 samples were used for the test set. The
average spectrum was calculated from 4 measurements in each sample and used for analysis. Spectral pretreatments in
the training set were investigated and found out the optimal result from cross validation of calibration models for SSC.
The correlation coefficient (R) and the root mean squared error of calibration (RMSEC) were used to choose an
efficient calibration model. For evaluation of predictive performance of the calibration model, the result of the
correlation coefficient and the root mean squared error of prediction (RMSEP) in the test set were considered. The
Unscrambler (CAMO, Oslo, Norway) was used for statistical analysis.
Results and discussion
The characteristics of samples in the training set and the test set were shown in Table 1. The average SW-NIR
absorbance spectra of samples in groups of low, middle and high SSC were calculated and compared as shown in
Figure 1. It showed that SSC of tomato was related to absorbance. Lower SSC in tomato appeared lower absorbance.
It was investigated that smoothing (SavitskyGolay, 7-point fit) spectral pretreatment obtained the optimal result (R =
0.927, RMSEC = 0.287) for establishment of a calibration model as shown in Table 2. The calibration model was used
for SSC prediction in the test set and obtained good results (R = 0.923, RMSEP = 0.319). The scattered plot of
measured SSC versus predicted SSC by the calibration model in the test set was shown in Figure 2.

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P-02

Figure 1. Averaged original spectra of samples with different SSC. Figure 2. Scattered plot of actual SSC versus predicted SSC of the test set.

Table 1. Description of samples in the training set and the test set.
Sample set
N
Unit
Range
o
126
Bx
3.3-8.5
Training
o
54
Bx
3.5-7.9
Test

Table 2. The results of PLSR for SCC in tomatoes.

Calibration set
Spectral
N
Factor
R
pretreatment
Smoothing
126
18
0.927

Mean
4.7
4.8

SD
0.77
0.83

RMSEC

Prediction set
R

RMSEP

0.287

54

0.923

0.319

Conclusions
By transmittance SW-NIR measurement, the absorbance spectra which preprocessed by smoothing (Savitsky
Golay) pretreatment could be used to develop the performance calibration model for prediction of SSC in intact
tomatoes. The results obtained good accuracy of SSC prediction, therefore it showed that transmittance SW-NIR
spectroscopy had a good potential to be a non-destructive technique to evaluate the soluble solids content of tomatoes. It
is also possible to use for the on-line sorting process.
Acknowledgement
This research was funded by Faculty of Agro-Industry, King Mongkuts Institute of Technology Ladkrabang.
The authors acknowledge the Kasetsart Agricultural and Agro-Industrial Product Improvement Institute (KAPI) for use
of laboratory and equipments. Moreover the authors would like to thank Assoc. Prof. Panmanas Sirisomboon for kindly
technical help.
References
1. A.A. Kader, Effects of postharvest handling procedures on tomato quality, Acta Hort. 190, 209221 (1986).
2. K. Flores, M.T. Sanchez, D.P. Marin and J.E. Guerrero, Feasibility in NIRS instruments for predicting internal
quality in intact tomato, J. Food Eng. 91, 311-318 (2009).
3. X. Hu, Y. He, A.G. Pereira, A.H. Gmez, Nondestructive Determination Method of Fruit Quantity Detection Based
on Vis/NIR Spectroscopy Technique, Proceedings of the 2005 IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology 27th
Annual Conference, Shanghai, China, September 1-4, 1956-1959 (2005).
4. Y. Shao, Y. He, A. H. Gmez, A. G. Pereir, Z. Qiu, Y. Zhang, Visible/near infrared spectrometric technique for
nondestructive assessment of Heatwave (Lycopersicum esculentum) quality characteristics, J. Food Eng. 8, 672-678
(2007).

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