Abstract:

A nondestructive method to predict the postharvest quality of strawberry fruits was proposed. Strawberry fruits
were stored at 20 and 4 ℃, respectively. During the storage, sensory evaluation, weight loss and hardness of strawberry fruits
were determined to evaluate the quality grade and the aroma components were analyzed by electronic nose. The correlation
analysis between the responses of 10 sensors and quality grade showed that most of the sensor responses had a significant
correlation with quality grade. Principal component analysis of sensor responses showed that electronic nose could be used to
distinguish among different quality grades of strawberry fruits. Based on Fisher classifier method, the quality of strawberry
fruits stored at room temperature could be classified at an accuracy of 97.5% for three different grades. Strawberry fruits
stored at low temperature achieved classification accuracy of 93.3% based on electronic nose analysis. Therefore, electronic
nose is applicable to monitor the quality of strawberry fruits during storage and transportation.

Key words: strawberry, physicochemical indexes, quality grade, electronic nose, prediction