Electronic Sensing of Aromatic Volatiles for Quality Sorting of Blueberries

An electronic sniffer using semi-conductor gas sensors that nondestructively measured aromatic volatile gas emissions from fruit was developed to assess blueberry quality. The sniffer detected soft and damaged fruit in packaged containers at a 5% level of damage and distinguished four of five fruit ripeness classes: (1) mature-green and green-pink; (2) blue-pink; (3) blue; and (4) ripe fruit. Sniffer response increased as fruit ripened, as did total concentration of aromatic volatiles. Sniffer response correlated with berry firmness, pH, titratable acidity, and color, and detected differences among 10 cultivars, as did impact response analysis. The electronic sniffer is rapid, nondestructive and may be used to sort and quality check for presence of unripe or damaged fruit in closed packs of fresh berries.