Optical techniques for rapid quality monitoring along minimally processed fruit and vegetable chain

Product quality must be maintained at each step of product handling, processing, and preservation, and therefore rapid methods should be available to provide useful information in process management. The aim of this review was to give an overview of optical techniques for measuring quality of fruit and vegetables along minimally processed chain. A brief description of spectroscopic and imaging techniques currently used in the fruit and vegetable sector and a selection of applications are presented, paying particular attention to those along pre-, post-harvest and post-packaging phases. Future perspectives about the simplification of these non-destructive techniques were finally explored.