Abstract:
Indiscriminate use of Calcium Carbide and other fruit ripening enhancers like Ethephon has created a situation where
many local fresh fruit products do not satisfy the consumer quality expectations. Therefore, introducing appropriate
tools for rapid detection of artificially ripened fruits has become vitally important to secure the industry while
preventing the consumers from health hazards. An attempt was made to use the Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) for
the detection of artificially ripened mango by Calcium Carbide and Ethephon. Unripe mangoes were treated separately
with Calcium Carbide and Ethephon. The treatments were replicated three times consisting five fruits per each
replicate. Untreated mango was used as controls. The fruits were arranged in plastic crates padding with polyurethane
foam lining with 36 mm of thickness. Near infrared spectra of all mango fruits were taken daily at the rate of 10 spectra
per fruit until the fruits were overripe. Soft Independent Modelling of Class Analogy (SIMCA) calibration models were
developed to identify the artificially ripened fruits from the controls. Partial Least Square (PLS) models were also
developed to predict the Brix & Firmness values of fruits at ripening. The SIMCA classification was accurate as 98.5%
and 97.8% for Calcium Carbide and Ethephon respectively. PLS regressions for Brix and firmness were achieved with
Correlation coefficients of 0.85 and 0.86, respectively. The results revealed that high potential possibility exists with
NIR technology to serve as a nondestructive evaluation tool for artificially ripened mango fruits using CaC2 and
Ethephon.
