Spectroscopy of Summer Fruit Salads – Have you eaten the rainbow today?

Have you eaten the rainbow today?

The SpectraWizard isn’t the only one who should be enjoying rainbows. One of the best ways to “eat the rainbow” as many nutritionists recommend is to fill your plate with a variety of colorful, flavorful, and nutrient-dense fruits and vegetables. Summer salads are an easy and delicious way to do that, and they make a great addition to any summer gathering. What fruits and veggies does the SpectraWizard like to put in a summer salad? All of them! Since he lives here in sunny Florida one of his favorite additions is a mango straight from his mango tree. Other great additions to a summer salad could include pomegranate seeds, fresh berries, watermelon, apples, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, shallots, corn, carrots, herbs, and microgreens. As you know we love to make rainbows here at StellarNet, and we hope we have inspired you to make rainbows on your plate too! Here are some great articles from some of our customers on how they are using spectroscopy to analyze fruits and vegetabes

Apples- Did you know that while skin color of fruit is often the main criteria for predicting ripeness it’s not always a good indicator? Generally ripeness of bananas and mangos is assumed based on the color, however, as temperature increases, skin color changes but no actual ripening occurs. The Faculty of Engineering at Alexandria University are using a StellarNet NIR spectroscopy system to improve the estimation of acidity in Fuji apples.

Peas– Pass the peas please! The Department of Atomic Energy (Government of India) graduate fellowship scheme (DGFS) has been supporting research of the treatment of pee seeds with plasma activated water. Thus far the research has indicated that this treatment has increased germination as well as increased the concentration of the protein and sugar content of the peas.

Cucumbers- The Agricultural Engineering Research Institute has developed a technique using StellarNet’s NIR instrumentation to predict the nitrate concentration that is present in cucumbers. This is useful is screening for nitrates in order to stay under the maximum limit of nitrate accumulation based on recommendations from organizations such as WHO (World Health Organization).