Rapid, simultaneous and non-destructive assessment of the moisture, water activity, firmness and SO 2 content of the intact sulphured-dried apricots using FT-NIRS and chemometrics.

The potential of using FT-NIR spectroscopy for the rapid and non-destructive measurement of the moisture, water activity, firmness and SO2 content of the intact sulphured-dried apricots (SDA) was investigated for the first time in the literature. The partial least squares regression (PLS-R) models constructed using FT-NIR spectra were very successful in predicting the moisture content (R2 p = 0.986, RMSEP = 1.22%, RPD = 9.15) and water activity (R2 p = 0.987, RMSEP = 0.016, RPD = 9.37) of SDAs. Satisfactory results were also obtained for the models developed for the prediction of the firmness (R2 p = 0.845, RMSEP = 0.445, RPD = 2.55) and SO2 content (R2 p = 0.804, RMSEP = 349 mg kg-1 , RPD = 2.27). These results clearly demonstrate that the major quality parameters of SDA can be simultaneously measured in a short time by FT-NIR spectroscopy without any need for the sample preparation or skilled laboratory personnel.