Non-destructive identification of varieties of Hawaii-grown avocados using near-infrared spectroscopy: Feasibility studies using bench-top and handheld spectrometers.

Abstract

Avocados are an important economic crop of Hawaii, contributing to approximately 3% of all avocados grown in the United States. To export Hawaii-grown avocados, growers must follow strict United States Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (USDA-APHIS) regulations. Currently, only the Sharwil variety can be exported relying on a systems approach, which allows fruit to be exported without quarantine treatment; treatments that can negatively impact the quality of avocados. However, for the systems approach to be applied, Hawaii avocado growers must positively identify the avocados variety as Sharwil with APHIS prior to export. Currently, variety identification relies on physical characteristics, which can be erroneous and subjective, and has been disputed by growers. Once the fruit is harvested, variety identification is difficult. While molecular markers can be used through DNA extraction from the skin, the process leaves the fruit unmarketable. This study evaluated the feasibility of using near-infrared spectroscopy to non-destructively discriminate between different Hawaii-grown avocado varieties, such as Sharwil, Beshore, and Yamagata, Nishikawa, and Greengold, and to positively identify Sharwil from the other varieties mentioned above. The classifiers built using a bench-top system achieved 95% total classification rates for both discriminating the varieties from one another and positively identifying Sharwil while the classifier built using a handheld spectrometer achieved 96% and 96.7% total classification rates for discriminating the varieties from one another and positively identifying Sharwil, respectively. Results from chemometric methods and chemical analysis suggested that water and lipid were key contributors to the performance of classifiers. The positive results demonstrate the feasibility of NIR spectroscopy for discriminating different avocado varieties as well as authenticating Sharwil. To develop robust and stable models for the growers, distributors, and regulators in Hawaii, more varieties and additional seasons should continue to be added.

Plant phenotyping relevance

近赤外分光法を用いてアボカド果実の品種を非破壊識別し、ベンチトップおよびハンドヘルド装置の分類性能を評価しており、植物器官の状態・品種形質取得法が研究の中心である。

Code and data availability

The paper's NIR spectral measurements (bench-top and handheld) and JMP analysis data are stated to be deposited publicly on Dryad (DOI: 10.5061/dryad.98sf7m0rj). However, no Dryad URL appears in the allowed_urls list, so the asset cannot be linked to an allowed public URL; it is flagged as request_only pending URL whit

No evidence-backed public reproduction asset is currently recorded.