The objective of a recent study, carried out by a group of international researchers (Nuguri et al., 2025), was to evaluate the applicability of a portable NIR scanner and NIR sensor for the in-line, non-destructive and rapid analysis of important quality parameters of tomato concentrate.
For the experiment, 224 samples provided by a processing plant over a period between 2015 and 2022 were used . For the collection of NIR spectra, a transflexion approach was used with a reflector with an optical path length of 0.50 mm. Partial least squares regression (PLSR) was used to analyse the data and develop predictive models of quality characteristics.
The results show that both the NIR scanner (1350-2500 nm, R2 pre = 0.83-0.98 and RMSEP = 0.03-0.63) and the NIR sensor (1100–2550 nm, R2pre = 0.85-0.98 and RMSEP = 0.05-0.43) provide comparable performance with good merit parameters, highlighting their suitability for product quality assessment.
Overall, the study highlights the potential of miniaturised NIR systems as a cost-effective, high-throughput, multi-component monitoring technique for the tomato processing industry, optimising processes, improving production rates and increasing product quality.
Bibliographical references: S.M. Nuguri et al., Journal of Agriculture and Food Research, 21, 2025, 101974.
