Evaluation of sensory and texture profile analysis properties of stored Khalal Barhi dates nondestructively using Vis/NIR spectroscopy

Abstract It is important to facilitate evaluating fruit quality during harvesting and postharvest operations with simple, fast, and nondestructive tests. The purpose of this study was to evaluate TPA Barhi dates texture parameters (hardiness, cohesiveness, and chewiness) at three maturity stages: Kimri (green), Khalal (green to yellow), and Rutab (brown). The Khalal stage can be further classified into three phases: 80, 90, and 100% yellow utilizing spectra analysis. The texture properties of fresh fruit were found to correlate well with the cross validation spectra analysis resulting in a high determination coefficient ( R 2 ) 0.905 for hardiness, 0.803 for cohesiveness, and fairly well (0.675) for chewiness. The effect of stored fruits (under room, cold, and controlled atmosphere) on TPA properties was also examined. The TPA fruits were highly effected by storage conditions where the shelflife of Barhi fruits were found to be 20, 40, and 120 days corresponding to room, cold, and CA storages, respectively. In conclusion, near‐infrared (NIR) spectroscopy is a powerful and effective nondestructive method to evaluate the texture parameters of Barhi fruit at different maturity stages during various harvest and postharvest operational chain. Practical Applications The study proves the success of correlating NIR with texture parameters of fresh Barhi fruit at different stages of maturity. This can be utilized in commercial nondestructive on‐line sorting of fruits based on their mechanical properties utilizing NIR instrumentation. NIR can be utilized to decide marketing destinations for fruits. Furthermore, NIR is a useful tool in deciding storing fruit in cold or controlled atmosphere storage or immediate marketing. The shelflife of Barhi fruits were found to be 20, 40, and 120 days corresponding to room, cold, and CA storage, respectively. Further studies may utilize NIR in predicting the shelflife of stored Barhi fruits based on texture. From the results of this study, links of sensory tests with NIR spectra would be encouraged for future studies. It will save time, efforts, and cost for producers and processors as well as in marketing.