Journal of Food Engineering 349 (2023) 111481

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Journal of Food Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jfoodeng

Intelligent control of green tea fixation with Microwave Processing

Feihu Song a, Yue Zheng a, Ruoying Li c, Zhenfeng Li a, *, Benying Liu b, **, Xin Wu a
a
Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Food Manufacturing Equipment & Technology, School of Mechanical Engineering, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, Jiangsu, 214122,
China
b
Yunnan Provincial Key Laboratory of Tea Science, Institute of Tea, Yunnan Academy of Sciences, Menghai, Yunnan, 666201, China
c
School of Law, Peking University, No. 5 Yiheyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing, 100871, China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: A microwave system for green tea fixation was built in this study. A machine vision was used to capture the tea
Intelligent control leaves’ images during the fixation process. The RGB, L*a*b*, dissimilarity, entropy, contrast, homogeneity,
Microwave correlation, and energy were online calculated based on the original image information. In a ‘forward selection’
Machine vision
method, the G, B, correlation, and the absolute value of ‘a*’ were used to predict the moisture content with
Green tea fixation
Deep learning
genetic algorithm combined with back propagation neural network. The predicted moisture content was used to
terminate the fixation process automatically. To optimize the whole fixation process, a fuzzy logic controller was
designed to control the temperature and microwave power continuously. The control was based on the physi­
cochemical changes of the tea leaves, which was predicted with the extracted image information. With the
intelligently controlled fixation, the final product quality was greatly improved, with the tea polyphenol content
of 16.23%, amino acid of 6.67%, phenol ammonia ratio of 2.43, chlorophyll content of 9.33 mg/g, polyphenol
oxidase activity of 4.98 U/mL, and sensory score of 91.5.

1. Introduction
Owing to its health benefits and medicinal potentialities, green tea is
widely consumed in the word (Cheng et al., 2020; Maiti et al., 2019;
Saeed et al., 2017). In green tea production, fixation is the first and the
most important step which determines the final product quality (Zhu
et al., 2009). In this step the enzymes would be inactivated, the tea
leaves would be softened, the moisture content would be decreased, and
the fresh aroma would be dispersed (Gao et al., 2011; Han et al., 2016).
A few fixation methods have been used in factory or laboratory scale,
including steam, hot air, pan fire, roller, and microwave, each has their
own pros and cons (Table 1) (Zhu et al., 2009). The fundamentals of the
first four methods are heating the medium or container first, then
transferring the heat to the tea leaves. With this fundamental, the fast
and accurate temperature control is hard to implement (Wang et al.,
2020). As a result, red stems and yellow leaves are frequently generated,
leading to lower product quality (Zhu et al., 2011). Instead, microwave
can concentrate its energy on the tea leaves themselves (Qu et al., 2019),
so the tea leaves’ temperature can be adjusted rapidly: when the mi­
crowave power is turned on, the tea leaves’ temperature rises immedi­
ately, and vice versa. Studies have proved the advantages of microwave
power in green tea fixation (Dong et al., 2011). However, for the fixation
effects, different studies reported inconsistent results: some declared its
benefits in remaining more green color, fresh aroma and taste, while
others criticized its less aroma and taste reservation in the final products
(Qu et al., 2019). The contradiction also appears in studies for other food
products (Li et al., 2010; Kantrong et al., 2014). Hence, a deeper
research has to be conducted to clarify the contradiction.
Traditionally, tea fixation is operated manually. During fixation
process, the color, shape, aroma, and temperature are continuously
monitored by human eyes, nose, and fingers, and temperature is
controlled by stirring the tea leaves. With all the complexity and diffi­
culty, tea fixation is an expert work which needs years’ training and
experience (Wang et al., 2020; Zhao et al., 2020). With the increasing
labor cost, the hand-work fixation is gradually disappearing, and new
technologies have to be developed. Among all, machine vision is a
promising technology and has been applied in different tea processing.
Liang et al. (2018) used machine vision to extract color and texture
features of tea leaves during a tea withering process. Combined with
Partial Least Squares (PLS) and Support Vector Machine (SVM) regres­
sion models, they rapidly detected the moisture content online. Dong
et al. (2018) (Dong et al., 2018) detected the color characteristics of
black tea during fermentation for rapid prediction of pigment and

* Corresponding author.
** Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: lizhenfeng@jiangnan.edu.cn (Z. Li), Liusuntao@126.com (B. Liu).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfoodeng.2023.111481
Received 13 August 2022; Received in revised form 16 February 2023; Accepted 18 February 2023
Available online 24 February 2023
0260-8774/© 2023 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
F. Song et al. Journal of Food Engineering 349 (2023) 111481

Nomenclature PCA Principal Component Analysis

PLS Partial Least Squares
B Blue PPO Polyphenol Oxidase
BPNN Back Propagation Neural Networks R Red
DAQ Data Acquisition Board RMSEC Root Mean Square Error of Calibration
G Green RMSEP Root Mean Square Error of Prediction
GA Genetic Algorithm ROI Region of Interest
GLCM Gray-Level Co-occurrence Matrix R2c Coefficient of Determination of the Calibration Set
LED Light Emitting Diode R2p Coefficient of Determination of the Prediction Set
MC Moisture Content SPSS Statistical Product and Service Solutions
PAR Phenol Ammonia Ratio SVM Support Vector Machine
PC Personnel Computer USB Universal Serial Bus

major objectives include:

Table 1 Firstly, to design a microwave fixation system based on machine
Comparison of different fixation techniques. vision. The physical and chemical characteristics of tea would be
Type Principle Advantage Disadvantage
extracted, and a mathematical model for moisture content prediction
would be established by using extracted image information.
Steam Tea was fixed by Effectively The final structure is
Secondly, to design a fuzzy logic algorithm to realize the online
fixation steam at 100 ◦ C maintain the color complex, so the tea
under normal of fresh tea leaves can’t be rolled control of temperature and microwave power in the fixation process, in
pressure directly after fixation order to improve the final product quality of green tea.
Hot air Tea was fixed by Uniform The tea leaves edges
fixation hot air at temperature, are prone to be
2. Material and methods
300–350 ◦ C continuous and burned
rapid operation
Stir fry The pot wall at simple structure, The fixation effect is 2.1. Sample preparation
fixation about 200 ◦ C was low cost and not uniform, and the
used to fix the continuous heat source is not Fresh Longjing tea leaves, each with one bud and one leaf, were
green tea production environmental
harvested in Quzhou, Zhejiang Province. Tea leaves were refrigerated at
friendly
Roller Using the cylinder Low cost, suitable The fixation (4 ± 1) ◦ C after harvest, placed at room temperature of (26 ± 2) ◦ C and
fixation wall at about for large-scale uniformity is not relative humidity of (70 ± 5) % for 1 h before experiment. The initial
230 ◦ C to fix the continuous good, and the heat wet basis moisture content (MC) was (80 ± 0.2) % (dried at 105 ◦ C to a
green tea production source is not
constant mass) (Liu et al., 2015). The sample of 20 ± 1 g was used for
environmental
friendly
fixation in each experimental repetition.
Microwave The water Simple structure, The fixation The fixation processes were terminated when the moisture contents
fixation molecules under rapid temperature temperature is not decreased from the initial 80% to a final 55%. The image sampling rate
the electric field rise, energy saving, easy to control was every 1% MC decrease, and 26 data were obtained for each fixation.
are polarized and and high efficiency
The experiment was repeated four times, averaged values were reported.
friction heat is
generated
2.2. Microwave fixation system with machine vision

sensory quality. Laddi et al. (2014) extracted the Haralick texture fea­
A microwave fixation system with built-in machine vision was
tures of tea leaves and achieved grade classification with Principal
designed in this study (Fig. 1). The system consists of five units: a mi­
Component Analysis (PCA). These studies suggested the potential usage
crowave oven with adjustable power; an online temperature measure­
of machine vision in green tea fixation process control.
ment device; an online weight measurement unit; an image capturing
Artificial intelligence is developing fast in recent years. However, its
and processing unit; a PC equipped with LabVIEW software and data
application in tea production is still rare. Fuzzy logic algorithms can turn
acquisition board (DAQ) (NI6008, NI, Texas, USA).
the vague values into clear quantities, and deal with nonlinear, time-
The original circuit of the microwave oven (M1-L202B, Midea Group
varying, and incomplete models (Huang et al., 2021). These features
Co. Ltd., China) was modified so that the power could be continuously
indicate its potential usage for agricultural production. Nadian et al.
adjusted with a Triac circuit within 0–520 W instead of a constant 700 W
(2017) used a machine-vision-based system for kiwifruit drying. With a
(Li et al., 2009; Raghavan et al., 2010). Below the baseboard of the oven,
fuzzy intelligent control, the drying time and energy consumption were
there was a rotating antenna which was drove by an electric motor, as
significantly reduced. Zareiforoush et al. (2016) also developed a ma­
illustrated in Fig. 1b. With the rotating antenna, a uniform electro­
chine vision system based on fuzzy logic control and adopted it in a rice
magnetic field could be achieved (Sebera et al., 2012; Ye et al., 2019;
whitening machine. The working speed of this system was increased by
Electrolux Home Products Corporation, 2010; Corning Incorporated.,
31.3% and the quality of the product was improved. With the natural
2011). The details can be found in our previous studies (Li et al., 2009,
difference among tea leaves, especially their different performance in
2010, 2011). A 2.5 mm hole was drilled on the back of the oven to inlet a
fixation, the fuzzy logic might be a good choice for quality control.
fiber optic probe (I4A01, Xi’an Heqi Photoelectric Technology Co., Ltd.,
The combination of microwave, machine vision, and intelligent
China). A tea leaf was tied closely on the optical fiber probe using thread
control might greatly improve the effects of green tea fixation. However,
for online temperature measurement (Grattanet al, 2002).
such attempt has not been reported yet. In this study, a new system was
Small holes were drilled on the top cover of the oven for weight
developed which could detect the images of the green tea leaves in
measurement: an ES5000 electronic scale (Tianjin Deant Sensor Tech­
microwave fixation process. The useful information would be extracted
nology Co. Ltd, China) was mounted on the top of the oven with a
online, and intelligent control could be implemented immediately. The
bracket. The diameters of the holes were less than 2.7 mm, so that the

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F. Song et al.
Fig. 1. Microwave fixation system with built-in machine vision.
microwave leakage was less than 5 mW/cm2, which met the Chinese
national standard for microwave radiation leakage (Chinese GB
10436–1989). Teflon threads were used to hang a Teflon plate (inside
oven) to the electronic scale (outside oven). The weight signal was
transferred to PC directly, and moisture content was calculated online.
Fig. 2. Verification of microwave heating uniformity.
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Journal of Food Engineering 349 (2023) 111481
A big hole was punched on the top cover of the oven for installation
of an industrial camera (RS-500C, Shenzhen ReVision Technology Co.
Ltd., Shenzhen, China). A metal can was used to enclose the camera to
prevent microwave leakage. The can was grounded with a metal wire to
the outside cover of the oven. An LED light source (KM-BRD24030-W,
Dongguan Comet Vision Technology Co., Ltd., China) was stuck to the
oven wall for illumination. The resolution of the industrial camera was
1280 × 960 and the pixel was 12 million. The original images of green
tea leaves were collected online using NI-Vision plug-in and integrated
into the LabVIEW program.
The DAQ of the PC has three input signals: a voltage signal from the
fiber optic probe, a weight signal from the electronic scale, an image
signal from the industrial camera; it outputs a 0–5 V signal to control the
Triac circuits for microwave power adjustment, so to control the tea
temperature.
In a preliminary experiment, tea leaves’ temperatures were
controlled at 60 ◦ C, 70 ◦ C and 80 ◦ C, respectively. It can be seen from
Fig. 2a that the temperatures’ control errors were within ±1 ◦ C. Also in
Fig. 2b, it can be seen that the temperature difference at five different
positions in the microwave oven was less than ±1.18 ◦ C. With the
satisfied uniform temperature distribution, only one fiber optic would be
used in the formal experiments for simplification of the intelligent
control system.
2.3. Image processing and feature extraction
2.3.1. Image pre-processing
During fixation process, images were captured once whenever the
moisture content of the green tea leaves was decreased by 1%. The
collected data were sent to the PC through a USB cable. The images were
processed with LabVIEW programs and features were extracted from the
“region of interest (ROI)", i.e. the region where the tea leaves were
placed.
The captured images had noise and background information, which
must be removed before feature extraction. In this experiment, the
preprocessing step included graying, binaryzation, erosion, expansion
and masking (Jiang et al., 2019).
A captured original image is shown in Fig. 3a. The first graying step
was to represent each pixel point of the image with a value within
[0,255], which only expressed the light and dark information. An image
after graying processing is shown in Fig. 3b.
The second step was binaryzation. The gray image was segmented in
the region of interest. Then the gray value of the pixel was replaced with
255 (white) in the target area, while those in the non-target area was
replaced with 0 (black). Hence the no-interest points such as tray
F. Song et al.
Fig. 3. Image pre-processing of the green tea leaves.
background and overlapped dark areas were eliminated. A double-
threshold segmentation was used to binarize the grayscale images of
tea leaves. The image after binaryzation is shown in Fig. 3c.
Corrosion and expansion are the basic operations of morphological
processing. The corrosion can eliminate the isolated points, and
expansion can cover the holes in the target region (Xu et al., 2019). In
this study, the image after binaryzation was processed with the same
times of corrosion and expansion, so to remove the unwanted points
such as the debris produced in fixation process. However, the useful
information in the remaining area was kept unchanged. The images after
corrosion and expansion are shown in Fig. 3d and e.
The principle of image masking is to map the original image with a
mask layer, to reproduce the overlapping area in the original image
(Arnal and Sucar, 2020). In this experiment, the original image was
masked by the image after expansion to describe the white target region
in the binary map. A color image was obtained at the end, which is
shown in Fig. 3f. It is obvious that most noise and background had been
removed, and images are ready for feature extraction.
2.3.2. Feature extraction
A total of 12 color and texture features of green tea leaves were
extracted from the captured images: RGB, L*a*b*, dissimilarity, en­
tropy, contrast, homogeneity, correlation, and energy. These features
would be used to predict physicochemical characteristics of green tea
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Journal of Food Engineering 349 (2023) 111481
leaves during fixation process.
The RGB values were first obtained from the pre-processed image
information, all values were in the range of [0,255]. The Lab were
calculated with a gamma method (León et al., 2006). The specific cal­
culations are shown in Equations (1)–(5). In Equation (1), a gamma
correction was first applied. Then the ‘r g b’ space was converted to ‘X Y
Z’ space in Equation (3). Finally, the conversion from ‘X Y Z’ space to
L*a*b* space was finished in Equation (4). L*a*b* is a
physiological-feature-based device-independent color system (Shahabi
et al., 2014). ‘L*’ represents a value from black to white, taking values in
the range of [0,100]. ‘a*’ represents a degree from red to green. ‘b*’
represents yellow to blue. ‘a*’ and ‘b*’ both take values in the range of
[− 128,127]. In this experiment, the value of ‘a*’ was always negative
during the fixation process. Considering that the subsequent study
would only analyze its relative change, the absolute value |a*| would be
used.
⎧
⎨ r = gamma(R/225)
g = gamma(G/225) (1)
⎩
b = gamma(B/225)
F. Song et al. Journal of Food Engineering 349 (2023) 111481

⎧(
⎪
⎪ x + 0.055
)2.4 2.4.1. Features selection by greedy searching
⎪
⎨
1.055
(x＞0.0445) The first step for moisture content prediction is to select the most
Where : gamma(x) = (2) useful features from the above 12 ones. As a greedy searching technique,
⎪
⎪ x
⎪
⎩ (x ≤ 0.0445) the ‘forward selection’ is frequently used to select appropriate variables
12.92
(Zhao et al., 2018). The forward selection algorithm starts with an
⎡ ⎤ ⎡
X 0.4124 0.3576 0.1805
⎤⎡ ⎤
r empty model, then introduce the variables one by one with the
⎣ Y ⎦ = ⎣ 0.2126 0.7152 0.0722 ⎦⎣ g ⎦ (3) maximum modeling performance (Yang et al., 2020). However, in the
Z 0.0193 0.1192 0.9505 b process of introducing more variables, it only analyzes the relationship
of the independent variables with the dependent variables. The inde­
⎧
⎨ L∗ = 116 × f (Y/Yn ) − 16 pendence of the different independent variables is not considered. So
a∗ = 500 × [f (X/Xn ) − f (Y/Yn )] (4) there exists information redundancy among the introduced independent
⎩ ∗
b = 200 × [f (Y/Yn ) − f (Z/Zn )] variables.
In order to optimize the feature selection and reduce the information
⎧
⎪
⎨ t(1\/3) (x＞0.0445) redundancy among features as much as possible, a combined forward
Where : f (t) = 1 29)2
( (5) selection and correlativity analysis method was proposed in this study.
4
⎪
⎩ t+ (x ≤ 0.0445) The first step was to use the “Analysis”–“Regression”–“Linear” command
3 6 29
in SPSS 25 to carry out the forward selection analysis, screening out the
The R, G, B are the extracted RGB components from pre-processed physical characteristics with high dependence on moisture content.
images; Xn, Yn, Zn are 95.047, 100.0, 108.883 by default; L*a*b* are Then the Pearson correlation analysis was carried out by using the
the calculated L*a*b* values. “analysis”—“correlation” —“bivariate” command in SPSS 25. Thus,
Surface texture features can quantitatively describe the physical based on the forward selection method and correlativity analysis, the
change of the object and reflect its internal chemical reactions (Oghaz physical characteristics with high dependence on moisture content and
et al., 2019). In this study the Gray-Level Co-occurrence Matrix (GLCM) low correlation with each other are selected as the input variables for the
was used to analyze the pixel arrangement pattern and local charac­ prediction model.
teristics of the image. The GLCM is essentially a reflection of the vari­
ation of pixels in an image in terms of direction and spacing. The GLCM 2.4.2. Prediction modeling with genetic algorithms
is denoted by Pd (i,j) (i,j=0,1,2 … L-1), where L is the gray level of the The decrease of moisture content in green tea leaves may lead to
image, i and, j are the gray levels of the pixel. One of the above elements physical characteristics changes such as color deepening and surface
represents the number of occurrences of two pixels in a grayscale wrinkling (Wei et al., 2019). An appropriate model for moisture content
combination, and the generation direction of the GLCM is usually taken prediction can implement the accurate and online supervision of fixation
as 0◦ , 45◦ , 90◦ and 135◦ . process and provide the theoretical basis for the subsequent temperature
In this study, the gray-level matrix is programmed in MATLAB 2020b and microwave control.
(matrix & laboratory, the Mathworks, Natick, MA, USA). The position In this experiment, the selected features were first normalized before
relationship between two pixels was determined and the GLCM with modeling. The Min-Max normalization was used, which is a linear
pixel pitch of 10 in the direction of 0◦ was calculated. In order to transformation of the original features by which the variables could be
describe the texture features more intuitively with the GLCM, the co- transformed into [0,1] Equation (6).
occurrence matrix obtained was not directly applied. Instead, the
X − Xmin
quadratic statistics were obtained on its basis. That is, to divide each X1 = (6)
X − Xmax
element Pd(i,j) by the sum of all elements to obtain a normalized value,
thus to obtain the normalized gray-level co-generation matrix. The where X1 is the normalized value; X is the original feature value; Xmax is
normalized grays-level co-generation matrix was then used to calculate the maximum feature value; Xmin is the minimum feature value.
the six HaraLick texture features, including dissimilarity, entropy, Genetic Algorithm (GA) is a highly parallel, stochastic, adaptive al­
contrast, homogeneity, correlation and energy. More details can be gorithm which can search for the optimal solution globally by simu­
found in literature (Khaldi et al., 2019). Among them, the dissimilarity lating the evolutionary process. To overcome the slow speed and poor
represents the variation degree of local texture; entropy represents the global search ability of back propagation neural networks (BPNN), the
non-uniformity of the gray distribution; contrast represents the clarity GA was adopted in this study (Dong et al., 2011). The study used 312
and the groove depth of the texture; homogeneity represents the degree samples to randomly divide the training set and the prediction set at a
of regularity of the local texture; correlation represents the linear rela­ 2:1 ratio, with 208 samples as the training set and the remaining 104
tionship of the gray scale; energy represents the uniformity of the gray samples as the prediction set. The [’tansig’, ‘purelin’] of the BPNN in the
scale distribution and the coarseness of the texture. MATLAB was chosen as the activation function. In order to avoid the
network paralysis that might occur during the training of a traditional
2.3.3. Data processing BPNN and to achieve a fast convergence rate, the “trainlm” of the LM
The captured images were pre-processed and the 12 features were algorithm was used as the network training function. The parameters of
extracted using the imaging programs in LabVIEW 2015. The data were the model were set as follows: the evolutionary generation was 25, the
analyzed and processed, as well as graphically drawn using Origin 2018 population size was 50, the crossover probability was 0.3, the mutation
software (The MathWorks, Natick, MA, USA). operator was 0.1, the number of hidden layers was 9, the number of
iterations was 100, the learning rate was 0.1, and the target error was
2.4. Moisture content prediction with deep learning algorithms 0.0001.

The online moisture content measurement needs the installation of
an electronic scale beside the microwave oven, which is complex and
difficulty for industrial application. A moisture content prediction with
image information was attempted in this section to overcome the
difficulty.
2.4.3. Model performance evaluation and data processing
The root mean square error of calibration (RMSEC), the coefficient of
determination of the calibration set (R2c ), the root mean square error of
prediction (RMSEP), the coefficient of determination of the prediction
set (R2p) were used to evaluate the performance of the model. If the
RMSEC and RMSEP were low (near 0) and approximate with each other,

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F. Song et al.
and the Rc2 and R2p were high (near 1), the model would be stable, ac­
curate, and perform good.
2.4.4. Data processing
The above features selection was conducted in SPSS 25 (IBM SPSS
Statistics, Chicago, IL, USA). The Origin 2018 software (Origin Lab,
Northampton, MA, USA) was used to deal with the data. The stan­
dardization processing, modeling and evaluation were performed in
MATLAB 2020b platform.
2.5. Experimental design and fuzzy control strategy
The green tea leaves were fixed at constant temperatures (60 ◦ C,
70 C, and 80 ◦ C) first. The 12 features were online calculated based on
◦
the online obtained image information. The final product quality was
evaluated, compared, and analyzed. Based on the analysis, an intelligent
fuzzy control strategy was designed to improve the fixation effects.
With the developed prediction model in the above section, the
moisture content could be obtained instantly while the fixation process
was still going on. This value was used to determine the end of the fix­
ation process, i.e., when moisture content was less than 55%, the pro­
gram terminated the tea fixation automatically. The flow chart of the
fuzzy control is illustrated in Fig. 4a.
In the fuzzy control strategy, the fixation process was divided into
two stages. In the early stage, the emphasis was to deactivate the
Fig. 4. The temperature and microwave power control strategy.
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Journal of Food Engineering 349 (2023) 111481
Polyphenol Oxidase (PPO) with a high temperature, but to preserve the
chlorophyll content at a relatively low temperature. After careful
consideration, the upper and lower temperature limits were set to be
80 ◦ C and 70 ◦ C, separately. The tea temperature would be varied
automatically between these two limits. In the middle and late stage, the
emphasis was to decompose the tea pigments, to ensure the formation of
tea color, to retain the flavor, and to promote the formation of aromatic
substances. So the temperature range was set to be 75-60 ◦ C. The details
would be described in Section 3.1 and 3.3.
The fuzzification of the input variables was trigonometric functions.
Total five sets of rules were used to describe the inputs, i.e., very low,
low, moderate, high, and very high (NB, NS, ZO, PS, and PB). The output
function was singleton. The Mamdani Max-Min method was used for
fuzzy reasoning. The defuzzification method was center of gravity.
With the fuzzy logic algorithm, the proper temperature used in the
next control period could be calculated. This intelligently calculated
temperature was used as the set value in PID control, just as shown in
Fig. 4b. According to the set value and the instant leaf temperature, the
PID controller could determine how to adjust the microwave power
(high/low, on/off). Thus the leaf temperature could be controlled to the
proper values. More details can be found in our previously published
papers.
2.6. Quality evaluation
2.6.1. Determination of moisture content
The wet basis moisture content was calculated by Equation (7). The
weight of the sample was measured online by the electronic scale.
mt − m0
Mt = × 100% (7)
mt
Where: Mt is the wet basis moisture content in %; mt is the sample weight
in g at time t; m0 is the weight of dry matter in g, which is estimated with
the averaged initial moisture content and the samples’ actual initial
weight.
2.6.2. Detection of tea polyphenols
Tea polyphenols are the main substance which form the bitterness of
tea soup. The content of tea polyphenols was measured according to GB/
T 8313–2018 using the Folin-Phenol method. The calibrations were
based on gallic acid and the results were displayed in gallic acid
equivalents (Song et al., 2022). The calculation was in Equation (8).
(A − A0 ) × V × d
CTP = × 100% (8)
SLOPEstd × w × 106 × m
Where: CTP is the tea polyphenol content of the sample in %; A is the
absorbance of the test solution at 765 nm; A0 is the absorbance of the
blank solution; V is the volume of the test solution in mL; d is the dilution
factor of the test solution; SLOPEstd is the slope of the gallic acid standard
curve; w is the dry matter content of the sample in %; m is the mass of the
sample in g.
2.6.3. Determination of amino acid content
The amino acids constitute the fresh flavor of the green tea, and can
moderate the bitterness and astringency in tea liquor. In this experi­
ment, the amino acid content was measured by the ninhydrin assay
according to GB/T8314-2013. The calculation was in Equation (9).
C × V1
CAA = × 100% (9)
1000 × V2 × w × m
Where: CAA is the amino acid content in %; C is the content of theanine in
mg; V1 is the total volume of the test solution in mL; V2 is the volume of
the test solution in mL; w is the dry matter content of the sample in %; m
is the mass of the samples in g.
F. Song et al. Journal of Food Engineering 349 (2023) 111481

2.6.4. Calculation of the polyphenol ammonia ratio (PAR) moisture content would be predicted, the relationship of their changes
A ratio of tea polyphenol content to amino acid was calculated. The with quality degradations would be analyzed. After careful consider­
smaller the value, the fresher the taste. ation, a few parameters would be used in fuzzy logic controller, fixation
temperature and microwave power would be intelligently controlled to
2.6.5. Measurement of chlorophyll content improve the fixation effects. The quality aspects after different fixation
The chlorophyll is a fat-soluble pigment, which is an important modes would be compared.
substance in forming the color of green tea leaves. The chlorophyll
content was measured using spectrophotometric method (Gao et al., 3.1. Color and texture change during fixation
2021). The calculation was in Equation (10).
The green tea leaves were first fixed at constant temperatures of
w = (8.02 × A1 + 20.21 × A2 ) × V / (1000 × m) (10)
60 ◦ C, 70 ◦ C, and 80 ◦ C. The extracted RGB values from the pre-
Where: w is the total chlorophyll content of the sample in mg/g; A1 is the processed images are shown in Fig. 5. It can be seen that all the three
absorbance of the test solution at 663 nm; A2 is the absorbance of the test values increased first and decreased later, but the peak values appear at
solution at 645 nm; V is the volume of the test solution in mL; m is the different instants.
sample mass in g. The R value is a reflection of PPO activity (Gao et al., 2011). When
the temperature of tea leaves rose at the beginning and reached a range
2.6.6. Determination of polyphenol oxidase activity (PPO) of 40–55 ◦ C, the PPO activity became strong and led to more enzymatic
During the fixation process, green tea leaves are influenced by the reaction, which produced more tea pigments and showed more red color
PPO activity and chlorophyll degradation, and the leaves will undergo on the tea leaves. Among the three temperatures, the R value reached
color changes. At high temperatures, the polyphenol oxidase will be the highest at 60 ◦ C, the smallest at 80 ◦ C. The reason was that at a low
deactivated and moisture will be evaporated to prevent the occurrence fixation temperature, the tea leaves had more chance to stay at the
of red stems and bad flavors. Therefore, it is necessary to know the PPO temperature range of 40–55 ◦ C, so the PPO activity was high, the
activity throughout the experiment. The polyphenol oxidase activity in enzymatic reaction was strong, and the browning of tea leaves was
tea samples was measured using spectrophotometric method (de Oli­ serious, and vice versa. As the fixation process continued, the tea leaves
veira Carvalho and Orlanda, 2017; Haida and Hakiman, 2019). It was temperature rose to higher levels and the enzyme activity decreased,
calculated in Equation (11). and PPO was gradually inactivated. Also, the already generated tea
pigments were destroyed under high temperature due to their structural
X=
A
(11) instability, and the R value gradually decreased. The higher the tem­
0.01 × m × t perature, the better the destruction effect of tea pigments, and the more
favorable to the formation of tea color (Gao et al., 2011). Therefore, the
Where: X is the polyphenol oxidase activity of the sample in U/mL; A is
R value can be used to judge the destruction effect of tea pigments
the absorbance of the test solution at 460 nm; m is the sample mass in g; t
during the middle and late fixation stages.
is the response time in min.
The G value increased shortly and decreased after 78% moisture
content. The G value is an expression of chlorophyll content. With the
2.6.7. Evaluation of sensory quality
decrease of moisture content and the increase of leaves’ temperature,
The final tea products were scored by 30 untrained judges (15 men
the inside chlorophyll was undergoing chemical reactions such as de-
and 15 women, all between 20 and 40 years’ old) on the appearance,
magnesium, oxidation and hydrolysis. Therefore, the G value gradu­
color, aroma, taste, residues, with weights of 25%, 10%, 25%, 30%,
ally decreased. Generally, a high temperature leads to more loss of
10%, respectively. The final score was the sum of weighted scores (Ye
chlorophyll content (Wei et al., 2021; Duan et al., 2012), and vice versa.
et al., 2020). The scoring mechanism is shown in Table 2.
The B value remained low and changed little for all temperatures, so it
would not be considered further.
3. Results and discussion
Just as mentioned in Section 2.3.2, L*a*b* were converted from RGB
values. Their variations during the constant temperature fixation pro­
With the above image information, features would be extracted,
cesses are shown in Fig. 6. At the beginning the L*a*b* values all had a
short rise, then followed by a sharp fall, and kept low at the late stage.
Table 2 For the three fixation temperatures of 60 ◦ C, 70 ◦ C, 80 ◦ C, the L*a*b*
Definitions and scale for sensory assessment of green tea. reached their maximum values at the moisture contents of 78%, 78%,
Factors Grade Description Scores Score 74%, respectively.
coefficient Under the strong microwave power, the moisture inside the tea
Appearance 1 Dark green and tender color 90–99 25 leaves was pushed out and condensed on the surface, leading to a light
2 A little dark green and tender 80–89 reflection, resulting in the high L*a*b* values (Duan et al., 2012). After
color
some time, the condensed moisture gradually evaporated and the
3 Green and dull color 70–79
Liquor color 1 Bright and green color 90–99 10 L*a*b* values declined. In the falling stage, the |a*| values decreased
2 A little bright and green color 80–89 rapidly (Fig. 6a and b) and the lowest |a*| values were found to be at the
3 Yellow and dull color 70–79 moisture contents of 71% and 68% for 60 ◦ C and 70 ◦ C fixation. At this
Aroma 1 Chestnut-like, floral and 90–99 25 stage, the PPO activity was high, the enzymatic reaction was strong, and
lasting aroma
2 Sweet and lasting aroma 80–89
the browning of tea leaves was serious. In contrast, at 80 ◦ C fixation, the
3 dull smell 70–79 |a*| value decreased rather slow (Fig. 6c), and there was no obvious
Taste 1 Soft, mellow, and refreshing 90–99 30 turning point or the lowest value. This indicated that the enzyme activity
taste was less strong, the enzymatic reaction time was shorter, and the degree
2 Brisk taste 80–89
of browning was lower. Meanwhile, at the end of fixation process, the |
3 Astringent taste 70–79
Infused leaf 1 Bright, green and tender 90–99 10 a*| value was the largest under 80 ◦ C fixation. This showed that the tea
leaves leaves had better color retention at 80 ◦ C fixation. Hence the |a*| value
2 A little bright, green and 80–89 can be used to estimate the level of PPO activity and the effect of color
tender leaves retention. In terms of the b value, it reached the maximum after 60 ◦ C
3 Dull and green leaves 70–79
fixation, indicating that the tea leaves were yellowish after

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F. Song et al. Journal of Food Engineering 349 (2023) 111481

Fig. 5. RGB color change at constant fixation temperatures. Fig. 6. L*|a*|b* color change at constant fixation temperatures.

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F. Song et al. Journal of Food Engineering 349 (2023) 111481

low-temperature fixation. Instead, its value was the minimum after

fixing at 80 ◦ C, showing a dark green tea color, which was favorable for a
good product quality.
Carefully comparing the RGB and L*a*b* curves at 60 ◦ C and 70 ◦ C,
it can be observed that the highest |a*| values can represent the highest
R value, a point representing the deactivation of the enzyme activity; at
80 ◦ C, there was no obvious turning points for |a*| values. The reason
was the limited reddish of tea leaves at this high temperature. Therefore,
the |a*| value itself and its change rate of |Δa*| can be used to predict
the level of PPO activity and the degree of browning effect at the early
fixation stage.
The variations of contrast, dissimilarity, and entropy during the
constant temperature fixations are shown in Fig. 7. It is obvious that
these values all rose first and fell later, and the peaks arrived at almost
the same moisture content. The ‘contrast’ curve illustrated that at the
beginning the shrinking was accelerating because of the dehydration,
and the gray level’s difference between the adjacent pixels was
increasing. After the peak value, when the moisture losing rate
decreased, the shrinking became slow and the gray level difference
decreased too. The ‘dissimilarity’ rose first and fell later also, indicating
that at the beginning the wrinkling of the tea leaves was accelerating
and the adjacent areas showed great different gray levels. After its peak
value, as the moisture losing rate became slow, the wrinkling speed
became slow too, the surface change tended to be stabilized, and the
gray levels tended to be consistent. The ‘entropy’ values also rose first
and fell later, indicating that the uniformity of the gray values increased
first and decreased later. The reason was the change of the gray values
distribution (Bello-Cerezo et al., 2019). Among the three constant tem­
peratures, the 80 ◦ C fixation achieved the highest contrast, dissimilarity,
and entropy values after the fixation processes, while the 60 ◦ C fixation
got the lowest. So a higher temperature was preferred for the formation
of tea texture.
The variations of homogeneity, correlation, and energy during the
constant temperature fixation process are shown in Fig. 8. As can be
seen, the three values have the same trend of change. They all fell first
and rose later, but arrived their lowest values at different moisture
contents respectively. The ‘homogeneity’ feature first decreased and
then increased, indicating that at the beginning, the images’ diversity
was accelerating due to the increasing wrinkles on the surface of tea
leaves, leading to a chaos of the gray levels, and vice versa. The ‘corre­
lation’ feature also has the same trends and reasons. In terms of the
‘energy’ feature, which also decreased first and increased later, the
reason was that the uniformity of the gray levels decreased due to the
more shrinking of the tea leaves at the beginning, but less thereafter.
In short, the RGB, L*a*b*, and six extracted features are all changing
in the fixation process. These changes are reflecting the external phys­
ical and internal chemical characteristics of the tea leaves. In the early
fixation stage, a high temperature is preferred to deactivate the enzymes
and reduce browning. In this stage, the |a*| and |Δa*| values can be used
to evaluate the PPO activity and judge the color retention effect. Hence
they would be used in fuzzy logic control. In the middle and late fixation
stage, a medium temperature is preferred to destruct the pigment but to
keep the chlorophyll content. In this stage, R and dissimilarity would be
used as the inputs of the fuzzy controller.
All the quality aspects are shown in Fig. 9. At 60 ◦ C, the highest
chlorophyll content of 10.23 mg/g was retained, the amino acid content
was also the highest of 6.88%, the PAR was the lowest of 2.21. But the
PPO was 7.13 U/mL, which meant a strong enzyme reaction which Fig. 7. Contrast, difference and entropy change at constant fixation
resulted in a low tea polyphenol content of 15.22%. Hence the final temperatures.
products had less transformation of aromatic substances, so insufficient
aroma and less mellow taste. In contrast, after the high temperature were bitter and astringent taste, and not refresh enough. For 70 ◦ C fix­
fixation at 80 ◦ C, the PPO was the lowest of 4.8 U/mL and tea poly­ ation, tea polyphenol content was 16.02%, amino acid content was
phenol was the highest of 16.58%. But the amino acid content was the 6.41%, PAR was 2.50, chlorophyll content was 9.35 mg/g, and PPO was
lowest 6.03% because of the experienced strong de-ammonia and de- 6.09 U/mL. All were in the middle range.
carboxylic reaction. The PAR was also the highest of 2.75, and the
chlorophyll content was the lowest of 9.02 mg/g. The final products

9
F. Song et al.
Fig. 8. Homogeneity, correlation and energy change at constant fixation
temperatures.
3.2. Moisture content prediction during fixation process
With ‘forward selection’, eight features (G, B, L*, correlation,
contrast, entropy, |a*|, energy) were first selected for moisture predic­
tion. However, these variables might not be independent with each
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Journal of Food Engineering 349 (2023) 111481
other, so the correlativity among them was analyzed and illustrated in
Fig. 10. It is clear that some of them have significant correlativity with
each other. For example, the G variable is highly interrelated with the L*
variable, and the correlativity coefficient is as high as 0.88. So the L
variable was first removed. After the removal of L, the B variable has low
relationship with the rest features, and it was kept. The ‘correlation’
feature is highly related with contrast, entropy, and energy, where the
coefficients were − 0.87, − 0.88, 0.93, respectively. So the contrast, en­
tropy, and energy features would not be considered in the moisture
content prediction model. The |a*| variable was not highly related with
all the other features. Therefore, the G-value, B-value, ‘Correlation’, and
|a*|-value were determined to be used in the GA-BP model.
Finally, the accuracy of the GA-BP model was analyzed with RMSEC
and RMSEP, the results are shown in Fig. 11. The RMSEC is 0.5503 and
the RMSEP is 0.5772. They are near 0 and close to each other. The R2c is
0.9947 and the R2p is 0.9942. They are all near 1. So the model is stable,
accurate, just as mentioned in section 2.4.3.
In a short summary, the MC prediction model, which combined
‘forward selection’, ‘Genetic algorithms’, ‘Back propagation neural
network’ can accurately predict the moisture content of the green tea
leaves during fixation process. The predicted value would be used to
terminate the fixation process whenever it reached the threshold of 55%.
This would be very important for green tea in the rest steps of shaping,
rolling, drying, etc.
3.3. Fuzzy logic control
According to the previous analysis, after high temperature fixation,
the PPO activity was low, more aromatic substances were formed, but
the amino acid content was not high and the PAR was not low. After low
temperature fixation, the aroma substances were rich, the tea taste was
good, but the PPO activity was high and the tea leaves’ color was poor. A
middle temperature of 70 ◦ C resulted in the medium quality aspects, but
still had the chance to be improved. Hence a fuzzy logic control based on
machine vision was attempted to adjust the temperature and microwave
power continuously. The fixation process was terminated automatically
when the moisture content reached 55%, which was predicted with the
previously developed GA-BPNN model.
3.3.1. Division of fixation stages
It was concluded in section 3.1 that the R values were closely related
to the PPO activity. To investigate the relationship of R value to PPO
activity in details, a few tea leaves were taken out at intervals in the
fixation process and their PPO was measured offline. The measured PPO,
R values and leaf temperatures are shown in Fig. 12. It can be seen that
at the beginning of fixation, the temperature of tea leaves increased
gradually. When the leaf temperature reached a range of 40–55 ◦ C, the
PPO activity increased rapidly. In this temperature range, the poly­
phenols were undergoing strong enzymatic reaction and generated more
theophylline, the tea leaves were browned, and R values went up. When
the tea leaves’ temperature rose continuously and passed over this
range, the enzyme activity decreased. This phenomenon occurred more
at low fixation temperatures of 60 and 70 ◦ C, as leaves had more chance
to stay at this temperature range. In contrast, at 80 ◦ C fixation, the tea
leaves were heated up rapidly and left that temperature range quickly,
so the PPO activity was deactivated in a short time, the browning of tea
leaves was less, and the R value was kept low.
The figure also shows that the R value and the PPO reached their
peak values almost at the same time. Just as analyzed previously, for a
green tea fixation process, different stages have different tasks. In the
early stage, the task was to deactivate the enzymes with a high tem­
perature. In the middle and late stage, the task was to form more amino
acids and aromatic fragrance with a middle fixation temperature.
Therefore, these two stages had to be separate first. The R value was a
good choice for this task: in the early stage, the R value was always
increasing (ΔR ≥ 0); in the middle and late stage, the R value was always
F. Song et al. Journal of Food Engineering 349 (2023) 111481

Fig. 9. Quality comparison after all fixations.

enzymatic browning, but the more serious the chlorophyll was

damaged. So the ‘relatively high temperature’ would be applied.
Also in section 3.1, the R value was found to be useful in prediction of
the destruction effect of tea pigments in the middle and late stage. So the
R value would be used as an input in this stage. From Figs. 7 and 9, it can
be found that the dissimilarity showed regular changes: in the middle
and late fixation stage, the lower the fixation temperature, the smaller
the dissimilarity change, and the more the flavor substances were
retained. So the other input variable would be the dissimilarity in this
stage for fuzzy logic control. The consideration was: the higher the
temperature, the smaller the R value and the greater the dissimilarity, i.
e., the more destruction effect of tea pigments. However, at high tem­
perature, the flavor substances are poorly retained, so the temperature
should not be maintained high for a long time.

3.3.3. Fuzzy logic algorithms

Based on the above analysis and consideration, a set of fuzzy logic
algorithms was designed. The fuzzy rules in the early stage are listed in
Table 3, the input membership functions and output singleton function
Fig. 10. Correlativity coefficients among the selected features. are shown in Fig. 13. For the middle and late fixation stage, the fuzzy
rules are listed in Table 4, the input membership functions and output
singleton function are shown in Fig. 14.
decreasing (ΔR < 0). So the R would be used to separate the two stages.
In the first stage, a large |Δa*| value meant a high PPO activity, so a
The LabVIEW program would judge the turning point of increasing to
higher fixation temperature was needed; a small |Δa*| value meant a
decreasing stages automatically. In the different stages, different control
low PPO activity, so no action was needed, and the temperature should
strategies would be applied.
be controlled by the value of |a*| to retain more chlorophyll content. If
the value of |Δa*| was small, but the value of |a*|was too large, it might
3.3.2. Input variables for fuzzy logic controller
be a water reflective phenomenon and the temperature should be raised;
In the early fixation stage, the PPO should be quickly deactivated, the
if the value of |a*| was too small, it indicated that the chlorophyll
enzymatic browning should be reduced, but the damage to chlorophyll
damage was too serious and the temperature needed to be lowered.
should also be considered. So a relatively high temperature should be
In the second fixation stage, if the value of R was large, it meant that
applied. In the second stage, tea pigments should be decomposed, aro­
the destruction effect of tea pigment was poor and the temperature
matic substances transformation should be promoted, but the original
needed to be raised; if the value of R was small, it meant that the
fresh flavor should be retained. Hence a relatively low temperature
destruction effect of tea pigment was good, and there was no need to
should be used.
control the temperature by R value. In this case, the temperature should
In section 3.1, the |a*| and |Δa*| values had been found to be the
be controlled by the ‘dissimilarity’ to retain the flavor substance in tea
representatives of PPO levels and color retention effect. So the |a*| and
leaves. When the value of R was small but the ‘dissimilarity’ was too
|Δa*| values would be used as inputs of the fuzzy logic to control the
large, it meant that the tea flavor substance was losing fast and the
temperature output in the early stage. The consideration was: the higher
temperature needed to be lowered; if the ‘dissimilarity’ was too small, it
the temperature, the larger the |a*| value and the smaller the |Δa*|
meant that the flavor substance was remained, but the aromatic
value, i.e., the lower the enzyme activity and the lower the degree of

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F. Song et al. Journal of Food Engineering 349 (2023) 111481

Fig. 11. Prediction results of moisture content by GA-BP neural network.

substance conversion was insufficient and the temperature needed to be Fig. 12. Enzyme activity (PPO) and leaf temperature at constant fixation
raised. When the R value was extremely small, the fixation was near the temperatures.
end and the temperature needed to be lowered.

Table 3
3.4. Effects of fuzzy control Fuzzy control rules in the early stage of green tea fixation.
|a| Value |Δa| Value
Under the designed fuzzy logic control, the variations of the input
NB NS ZO PS PB
variables in the first fixation stage are shown in Fig. 15a, and the vari­
NB NB NS NS NB NB
ations of the input variables in the second stage is in Fig. 15b. The
NS NB ZO ZO NS NB
controlled temperature curve and moisture content variation are shown ZO NS ZO PS PS PB
in Fig. 16, PS NB ZO PS PS PB
In the early fixation stage, the fuzzy set temperature started from PB PS PS PS PB PB
77.5 ◦ C because of the high |a*| value and the low |Δa*| value, which NB-Negative big, NS-Negative Small, ZO-Zero, PS-Positive Small, PB-Positive
was caused by the water reflection on the leaf surface. With the Big.
increasing |Δa*|, i. e, the increasing enzyme activity, the fuzzy set

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F. Song et al. Journal of Food Engineering 349 (2023) 111481

Table 4
Fuzzy control rules in the middle and late stage of green tea fixation.
R Value Dissimilarity

NB NS ZO PS PB

NB NB NS NS NB NB
NS PS PS ZO NS NB
ZO PS PS PS ZO NS
PS PB PS PS ZO ZO
PB PB PB PS PS ZO

NB-Negative big, NS-Negative Small, ZO-Zero, PS-Positive Small, PB-Positive

Big.

temperature had to be raised to the highest limit of 80 ◦ C. During this

process, the leaf temperature rose rapidly under the strong microwave
power. It began from 56.2 ◦ C at 23s, quickly passed the enzymatic
temperature range and arrived the high limit of 79.6 ◦ C at 35s. With the
deactivation of PPO, the |Δa*| and |a*| values both decreased. To reduce
the chlorophyll damage, the set temperature automatically decreased to
72.5 ◦ C. The early stage finished at 47s upon the judgement with R peak
value.
At the beginning of the middle stage, the fuzzy set temperature rose
to a high temperature of 75 ◦ C because of the high tea pigments content
and the large R value, as well as the low ‘dissimilarity’. With the
decreased R value, which meant a good destruction of the tea pigments,
and the increased ‘dissimilarity’, the fuzzy set temperature gradually
decreased to 64 ◦ C in order to retain more flavor substances. At the low
temperature, the R and ‘dissimilarity’ became too low and the set tem­
perature had to increase to 72 ◦ C. Then the R decreased and ‘dissimi­
larity’ increased again, and the set temperature went down to 64 ◦ C once
more. After that, the set temperature fluctuated between 64 ◦ C and 60 ◦ C
because the R value and the ‘dissimilarity’ decreased together. When the
moisture content was 54.92% at 268 s, the fixation process was termi­
nated by the program automatically. The final moisture content of tea
leaves was calculated as 54.97%, if using the traditional weighing
method. This again indicated the accuracy of the moisture content
prediction model.
In Fig. 16, the moisture content curve looks very different from a
typical one. The reason was the changing temperature in the whole
process, which was adjusted continuously with the fuzzy logic
controller. So a non-typical MC curve might be good to the food stuff.
After fuzzy logic controlled fixation, the tea polyphenol content was
16.23% finally, ranking the second highest just behind the 80 ◦ C fixa­
tion. The chlorophyll content was 9.33 mg/g, the second highest just
behind the 60 ◦ C fixation. The phenol ammonia ratio was 2.43, the
second lowest after the 60 ◦ C fixation. The amino acid content was
6.67%, also the second highest behind the 60 ◦ C fixation. The PPO ac­
tivity was 4.98 U/mL, ranked middle in all the modes. The taste was
fresh and mellow, which meant that the aroma and flavor were well
retained. In general, most quality aspects were improved by the intel­
ligent control. The results were also shown in Fig. 9.

4. Conclusion

An intelligent microwave fixation system was built in this study. The

image information was captured and total 12 features were extracted,
including RGB, L*a*b*, dissimilarity, entropy, contrast, homogeneity,
correlation, and energy. Based on these features, a GA-BP model was
attempted to predict the moisture content of the tea leaves, the pros and
cons of fixation effects at several constant leaf temperatures were
compared and analyzed.
Fig. 13. The input and output functions in the early stage. To improve the fixation quality, a fuzzy logic control was used to
adjust the microwave power and tea leaves’ temperature automatically
and continuously in the fixation process. The R value was used to
separate the two fixation stages. Different strategies were applied for
specific tasks. In the early stage, the |a*| and |Δa*| were used as input

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F. Song et al. Journal of Food Engineering 349 (2023) 111481

Fig. 15. The input values variations in the early, middle and late stages under
fuzzy control.

parameters of the controller. The task was to deactivate enzymes but not
damage chlorophyll too much. In the middle and late stage, the R value
and ‘dissimilarity’ were input into the fuzzy logic controller. The task
was to promote fragrance formation. With the intelligent control, the
overall quality was improved, generally better than any of the constant
temperatures.

Author contributions

Feihu Song: Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Data

Collection & Curation, Writing-Original Draft, Supervision.; Zhenfeng
Li: Conceptualization, Validation, Formal analysis, Writing-Review &
Editing, Supervision.; Yue Zheng: Resources, Writing-Review & Editing,
Data Collection & Curation.; Ruoying Li: Resources, Writing-Review &
Editing, Data Collection & Curation.; Benying Liu: Resources, Writing-
Review & Editing, Data Collection & Curation.; Xin Wu: Validation,
Formal analysis, Visualization, Software.
Fig. 14. The input and output functions in the middle and late stages.

14
F. Song et al.
Fig. 16. Intelligently controlled fixation temperature.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Data availability
No data was used for the research described in the article.
Acknowledgement
The authors acknowledge the financial support from Jiangsu Key
Laboratory of Advanced Food Manufacturing Equipment & Technology
(FMZ202002), the Open Fund of Yunnan Provincial Key Laboratory of
Tea Science (2021YNCX004).
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