Postharvest Biology and Technology 103 (2015) 2734

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Postharvest Biology and Technology

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/postharvbio

Ripeness evaluation of Sun Bright tomato using optical absorption and

scattering properties
Qibing Zhu a, * , Chunliu He a, * , Renfu Lu b , Fernando Mendoza c, Haiyan Cen d
a

Key Laboratory of Advanced Process Control for Light Industry, Ministry of Education, Jiangnan University, 214122 Wuxi, Jiangsu, China
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Sugarbeet & Bean Research Unit, 524 S. Shaw Lane, Michigan State University, East Lansing,
MI 48824, USA
c
Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences, 524 S. Shaw Lane, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA
d
Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition, 524 S. Shaw Lane, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA
b

A R T I C L E I N F O

A B S T R A C T

Article history:
Received 10 September 2014
Received in revised form 7 February 2015
Accepted 22 February 2015
Available online 3 March 2015

Ripeness is one of the most important factors in determining the processing and eating quality of tomato.
The objective of this research was to evaluate the changes of optical absorption and scattering properties
in tomatoes during ripening, and develop classication models for grading the ripeness of tomatoes using
0
optical absorption and scattering spectra. Optical absorption (ma) and reduced scattering (ms )
coefcients over the spectral region between 500 nm and 950 nm were measured, using a hyperspectral
imaging-based spatially-resolved instrument, for 281 Sun Bright tomatoes harvested at six ripeness
grades (i.e., Green, Breaker, Turning, Pink, Light-red, Red). Absorption peak around 675 nm
decreased consistently with the progression of ripeness, and its mean value for Red tomatoes was
almost zero. The reduced scattering spectra, on the other hand, decreased monotonically with the
0
increasing wavelength; the value of ms also decreased successively from Green to Turning, and an
opposite trend was observed from Pink to Red. Partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA)
models yielded 92.1%, 84.4%, 92.3%, and 92.1% classication accuracies for the three ripeness grades (i.e.,
0
Green/Breaker, Turning/Pink, and Light-red/Red), when using the full spectra (500950 nm) of ma,ms ,
0
ma&ms and the effective attenuation coefcient (meff = [3ma(ma + ms0 )]1/2), respectively. The PLS-DA
model using meff achieved an overall classication accuracy of 88.4% for the six ripeness grades, which
0
was 2.5% and 10.2% better than using the optical parameters of ma and ms alone. The research
demonstrated that the optical absorption and scattering spectra, especially their combinations, are
effective for classication of tomato ripeness.
2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Tomato
Ripeness
Optical properties
Absorption
Scattering
Hyperspectral imaging

1. Introduction
Tomato is one of the most consumed fruit vegetables
worldwide, which provides an essential source of vitamin C,
potassium, and antioxidants (primarily lycopene). Ripeness is one
of the most important quality attributes in determining harvest
time and in assessing post-harvest quality of tomato (Reid, 2002).
There are different quality requirements for the degree of ripeness
for harvested tomatoes, depending on the nal product destination
(i.e., fresh consumption, processing, etc.). Hence, measurement of
tomato ripeness is necessary for satisfying the food processor and
consumer demands (Van de Poel et al., 2012; Wilkerson et al.,
2013).

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 15861596626; fax: +8651085910633.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.postharvbio.2015.02.007
0925-5214/ 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Various nondestructive techniques have been investigated for

assessing tomato ripeness, which include machine vision (Choi
et al., 1995), visible and near-infrared spectroscopy (vis/NIRS)
(Blanco and Villarroya, 2002; Jha and Matsuoka, 2004; Clment
et al., 2008a; Sirisomboon et al., 2012), electronic nose (Gmez
et al., 2006, 2007), magnetic resonance imaging (Zhang and
McCarthya, 2012), X-ray-computed tomography (Brecht et al.,
1991)), spatially offset Raman spectroscopy (Qin et al., 2012), and
spectral imaging (Polder et al., 2002). Among these techniques,
machine vision is now in widespread commercial use for grading
the ripeness of tomatoes. Machine vision grading for tomato
ripeness is mainly based on the measurement of diffuse reectance
of the fruit skin. Tomato is a thin-skinned fruit, and the pigments
responsible for the color of the esh beneath the skin (chlorophyll
and lycopene) are readily visible from the surface diffuse
reectance. Machine vision is thus used for the color classication
of tomatoes into different ripeness categories for the fresh market

28

Q. Zhu et al. / Postharvest Biology and Technology 103 (2015) 2734

(USDA, 1991). However, the ripening of tomato involves a series of

complex physiological and biochemical changes, such as chlorophyll/starch degradation, and synthesis of lycopene and carotenoids (Barrett et al., 1998; Gastlum-Barrios et al., 2011). Moreover,
the maturation and/or ripening process within the tomato fruit is
not even and can vary greatly. Hence, single color indexes that are
based on surface diffuse reectance may not provide adequate
information for tomato ripeness evaluation. Consequently, many
studies have been reported on using vis/NIRS to determine the
chemical constituents or quality attributes of tomato. Since vis/NIR
spectral measurement is associated with the variations in chemical
composition and cellular structure of the tomato, it has been used
to determinate lycopene and beta-carotene content, soluble solids
content, and rmness of tomatoes (Baranska et al., 2006; Shao
et al., 2007).
The optical properties of turbid biological materials (e.g., fruits
and vegetable) are primarily determined by the absorption
coefcient (ma) which is related to the chemical composition,
0
and the reduced scattering coefcient (ms ), which is inuenced by
internal structural characteristics (Qin and Lu, 2008). Absorption
spectra obtained using conventional vis/NIRS are conceptually
different from the absorption coefcient. Vis/NIR measurements
only provide approximate measures of light absorption in the
samples, which are dependent on instrumental setup and are
dimensionless. The absorption coefcient, on the other hand, is an
intrinsic, fundamental optical property, and it has the units of cm1
or mm1. Moreover, measurement of the absorption and scattering
coefcients requires more sophisticated instrumentation and
computational algorithms. In principle, the absorption and
scattering coefcients can provide more comprehensive information about the composition and structural characteristics of a
product. This in turn could provide a better means for assessing
quality and maturity/ripeness of fruits and vegetables.
Based on the diffusion approximation theory for spatially
resolved reectance, coupled with hyperspectral imaging technique, Qin and Lu (2008) developed a fast, nondestructive method
for optical property measurement of agricultural products. The
method simultaneously measures the absorption and reduced
scattering coefcients from the scattering prole of each
wavelength over the spectral region of 5001000 nm. Subsequent
studies showed that the optical absorption and scattering
parameters were useful for assessing quality attributes of apple,
peach, and pickling cucumber and other food products (Cen et al.,
2012; Lu et al., 2010, 2011). Qin and Lu (2008) did a rst study on
measuring the optical absorption and scattering properties of
tomatoes, and they showed that the absorption coefcient at
675 nm could be used to classify tomatoes into three ripeness
grades (i.e., Green, Pink and Red). The current research further
expanded on the study of Qin and Lu (2008) by measuring the
optical absorption and scattering properties of Sun Bright
tomatoes that were harvested at all six ripeness grades (i.e.,
Green, Breaker, Turning, Pink, Light-red, and Red) and using
both optical parameters and their combinations to classify the
tomatoes into different ripeness grades. The specic objectives
were to:

2. Materials and method

2.1. Tomato samples and ripeness grading
Two hundred and eighty-one Sun Bright tomatoes at different
ripeness grades were hand harvested from the tomato vines in an
experimental eld of Michigan State Universitys Horticultural
Teaching and Research Center in Holt, Michigan, USA on two dates
in September of 2013. The tomatoes harvested on September 25th
were largely in the ripeness grades of Green, Breaker, and
Turning, while those fruit picked on September 26th mostly
belonged to the categories of Pink, Light-red, and Red. After
arrival at the laboratory on the campus of Michigan State
University in East Lansing, Michigan, USA, all harvested tomatoes
were cleaned with water, visually inspected and then classied,
based on the USDA standards (USDA, 1991; Choi et al., 1995), into
one of the six ripeness grades: Green (completely green in fruit
skins), Breaker (less than 10% red color in fruit skins), Turning
(over 10% but less than 30% red color in fruit skins), Pink (over 30%
but not more than 60% red color in fruit skins), Light-red (over 60%
but not more than 90% red color in fruit skins), and Red (more
than 90% red color in fruit skins). There were 50 tomatoes for each
ripeness grade except the Green grade, for which there were only
31 tomatoes. Due to the difculty of accurately classifying the
adjacent ripeness grades into their respective grades, the tomatoes
were further classied into three grades: Green/Breaker (tomatoes with less than 10% of red color for the skin), Turning/Pink
(tomatoes with the red color between 10% and 60% for the skin)
and Light-red/Red (tomatoes with the red color greater than 60%
for the skin).
The visual grading results for both six and three ripeness grades
of the test samples were considered to be the ground truth
information, against which the optical property classication
results were evaluated.
Immediately after completion of the ripeness grading, hyperspectral scattering images were collected within the same date.

[(Fig._1)TD$IG]

 Measure the optical absorption and scattering coefcients of Sun

Bright tomatoes with different ripeness grades over

500950 nm, using a hyperspectral imaging-based spatiallyresolved instrument, and evaluate their relationship with the
ripeness of tomatoes;
 Develop discriminant models for classication of tomatoes into
either six or three ripeness grades, using the absorption and
scattering coefcients and their combinations.

Fig. 1. Schematic of hyperspectral imaging-based spatially-resolved technique for

measuring optical properties of food products.

Q. Zhu et al. / Postharvest Biology and Technology 103 (2015) 2734

The tomatoes were kept at a room temperature of 22  C during

the imaging period.
2.2. Spectral scattering images acquisition
Measurements of absorption and scattering spectra for Sun
Bright tomatoes were carried out using a hyperspectral imagingbased spatially-resolved instrument, called Optical Property
Analyzer (OPA), developed by the USDA Agricultural Research
Services postharvest engineering lab at Michigan State University,
East Lansing, Michigan (Cen et al., 2012). The hardware of the OPA
mainly consisted of a high-performance 14-bit electron multiplying CCD (EMCCD) camera (Luca R604, Andor Technology, South
Windsor, Conn., USA), an enhanced imaging spectrograph
(ImSpector V10E, Spectral Imaging, Ltd., Oulu, Finland) covering
the wavelength region from 400 to 1000 nm, a prime lens
(Xenoplan 1.9/35, Schneider Optics, Hauppauge, New York, USA),
a 20 W tungsten halogen lamp (HL-2000-HP, Ocean Optics,
Dunedin, FL, USA) controlled by a DC regulated controller chip
(PT6204N, 12V, Texas Instruments, Inc., Dallas, TX, USA), a sample
positioning platform which was made up of a motorized linear
horizontal stage with a 0.00060 mm mm1 positioning precision
(Twintrac, TSZ8020, US23T22104-8LS, U.S. Automation, Laguna
Hills, CA, USA), and a sample holder (Fig. 1). Through an optical
ber and a specially designed focusing lens, the incident beam of
1.0 mm diameter was generated and delivered to the sample at an
angle of 15 with respect to the vertical axis, and parallel to the
imaging scanning with an off distance of 1.5 mm from the scanning
line to avoid signal saturation. The OPA scanned the sample to
record the two-dimensional scattering image for the wavelengths
of 500950 nm.
Each tomato was placed onto the sample holder, so that its
stemcalyx axis was approximately horizontal and perpendicular
to the scanning line of the hyperspectral imaging unit. The OPA was
controlled and operated through an in-house developed program.
The motorized stage automatically moved the sample to the predetermined initial position, and the system then started acquiring
images from the sample, as it was moving in on/off mode at an
increment of 0.5 mm. A detailed description of the OPA is given in
Cen et al. (2012).
For each test tomato, 21 scans on each of the two opposite sides
around the equator were acquired at an exposure time of 1 s for
each scanning image.

29

2.3. Optical properties extraction

A typical raw hyperspectral scattering image for tomatoes is
shown in Fig. 2(a). The image had a spatial resolution of 0.21 mm
per pixel. The region of interest covering the spectral region of
500950 nm with 5 nm intervals and the total spatial distance of
20 mm was selected from each image for further processing and
analysis. Each horizontal line taken from the image represents one
spatially-resolved scattering prole for a specic wavelength, as
shown in Fig. 2(b).
To determine the absorption and scattering coefcients from
each scattering prole, a diffusion model, coupled with inverse
algorithm, was used. Under the scattering dominance condition
(i.e., ms0 >> ma), light propagation in turbid biological materials can
be approximated as a diffusion process (Haskell et al., 1994). When
a small light beam perpendicularly penetrates a turbid biological
material, the diffuse reectance light R(r) is a function of the
0
sourcedistance r and the two optical properties ma and ms , and it
can be calculated using the following equation (Qin and Lu, 2006):
"


a0 1
1 expmeff r1
m

Rr
eff
r1
4p m t 0
r21





1
4A
1 expmeff r2

meff


r2
mt 0 3mt 0
r22
"

r1

#1=2

2

mt 0
"

4A

mt 0 3mt 0

r2

a0

#1=2

2
r

ms 0

ms ma
0

meff 3ma ma ms 0 1=2

[(Fig._2)TD$IG]

Fig. 2. (a) Raw hyperspectral scattering image for a scan line from a Sun Bright tomato; (b) scattering proles for four wavelengths.

Q. Zhu et al. / Postharvest Biology and Technology 103 (2015) 2734

mt 0 ma ms 0
where r is the distance from the incident point, a0 is the transport
0
albedo, mt is the total interaction coefcient, and meff is the
effective attenuation coefcient. r1 and r2 are the distances from
the observation point at the interface to the isotropic source and
the image source, and A is an internal reection coefcient which
were calculated using the empirical equations (Groenhuis et al.,
1983).
A nonlinear least squares tting algorithm was then used to
extract the best-t estimates of absorption and reduced scatting
coefcients from the spatially-resolved scattering proles (Cen and
0
Lu, 2009). The extracted optical coefcients ma and ms , and their
0
combinations meff and ma&ms for each sample at each wavelength
were then used for classication of the ripeness grades of
tomatoes.

[(Fig._3)TD$IG]
500

600

Wavelength(nm)

30

700

5000
800

2000

3000

4000
1000

900

2.4. Tomato ripeness classication algorithm

-10

-8

-6

-4

-2

10

10

Distance(mm)
(a)
500

600

Wavlength(nm)

Partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) was used

for classifying tomatoes into different ripeness grades, using ma
0
0
and ms spectra and their combination spectra meff and ma&ms . In
0
this study, the combination spectra of ma&ms were created by
0
simply cascading ma and ms . PLS-DA is a well-established data
analysis approach for chemometric classication (Barker and
Rayens, 2003). To select effective latent variables (LVs) for PLS-DA
models, a leave-one-out cross validation method was adopted.
With this approach, one sample in the calibration set is taken out
each time and a PLS-DA model is established for the remaining
samples. The model is then used to predict or classify the sample
that has been left out. Thereafter, the sample is placed back into the
calibration set, and another sample is taken out. The procedure is
repeated until all samples in the calibration set have been left out
once. All the algorithms were run in Matlab R2009b (The
MathWorks Inc., USA) and PLS Toolbox 5.0 (Eigenvector Research,
Inc., USA).
Prior to the model development, samples of each ripeness grade
were randomly divided into two groups, 75% of the samples were
used for training, and the remaining 25% samples were used for
independent test. For a given analysis, the training and test results
may vary depending on how the samples are actually selected. To
better evaluate the performance of the PLS-DA model for
classifying the ripeness of tomatoes into the six or three ripeness
grades, the above training and test procedures were run ten times.
Only averages over the 10 runs are reported in the following
section.

700

2000
800

1000
2500

500

1500
900

-10

-8

-6

-4

-2

Distance(mm)

(b)
500

600

3.1. Characteristics of the spectral scattering images

Fig. 3 depicts representative 2-D spectral scattering contour
images of tomatoes for the grades of Green, Pink and Red. The
rst impression of the whole scattering contour images shows that
there is a different pattern of scattering shape for the different
ripeness grades. With the ripening of tomatoes from Green to
Red, a dramatic increase in the intensity and scattering of the light
at 675 nm was observed. A conspicuous narrowing at 675 nm was
observed for Green tomatoes, while this narrowing disappeared
for Red tomatoes. This phenomenon was likely attributed to the
change of absorption due to chlorophyll during ripening (Clment
et al., 2008b; Shao et al., 2007; Tiwari et al., 2013; Xing et al., 2006).
Tomatoes at the Green grade contain a large amount of
chlorophyll, which absorbs light around 675 nm. Consequently
these tomatoes would have a strong absorption at 675 nm and

Wavelngth(nm)

3. Results and discussion

700
2000

800
4000

1000

3000
900

-10

-8

-6

-4

-2

10

Distance(mm)
(c)
Fig. 3. Two-dimensional hyperspectral scattering contour images for (a) Green, (b)
Pink, (c) Red tomatoes. (Numbers next to the contour lines represent the
measured light intensity value for the specic contours.)

Q. Zhu et al. / Postharvest Biology and Technology 103 (2015) 2734

most of the photons would not be able to scatter for a large

distance before being absorbed. As a tomato fruit ripens from the
Green to the Red grade, its chlorophyll content would be reduced
or disappear completely; consequently, the intensity and scattering of the scattered light at 675 nm also increased steadily.
Fig. 3 shows that the scattering over the wavelength region of
700900 nm broadened steadily from the Green to the Pink
grade, whereas the trend was opposite for the ripeness grades from
Pink to Red. According to the diffusion equation that governs
photon transfer in turbid media, the distribution of backscattered
light is a function of scattering distance, and the absorption and
scattering parameters. Since tomatoes had near-zero absorption
over the wavelength region of 700900 nm (Fig. 4(a)), the
scattering coefcient was a dominant factor in determining the
scattering distance over the wavelength region of 700900 nm.
The scattering coefcient is associated with the cellular structure,
particle size and density of the fruit. In the early ripeness grades,
cell wall depolymerization and cellulose degradation would have
resulted in a decrease in the scattering coefcient value; thus,
photons were able to scatter further away from the incident point
before emerging or backscattering from the surface of the
tomatoes. In the late ripeness grades, the steadily increasing

[(Fig._4)TD$IG]
0.35

green
breaker
turning
pink
light-red
red

0.3

ua(cm -1)

0.25
0.2
0.15
0.1
0.05
0
500

600

700

800

900

1000

Wavelenth(nm)
(a)
10

green
breaker
turning
pink
light-red
red

us'(cm-1)

density of small particles due to the production of small molecules

of soluble pectin and cellulose would have reversed the trend of
scattering changes, resulting in a larger value for the scattering
coefcient (De Veau et al., 1993). This may explain why the
scattering increased from Green to Pink, and then decreased
from Pink to Red over the wavelengths of 700950 nm.
3.2. Characteristics of absorption and reduced scattering coefcients
Fig. 4(a) and (b) shows the average absorption and reduced
scattering spectra of all tomatoes for each grade of ripeness.
Conspicuous absorption peaks at 675 nm were observed in
Fig. 4(a). The absorption peak around 675 nm decreased consistently with the increasing ripeness grade and the mean value of
Red tomatoes is almost close to zero (0.0007 cm1). This pattern
of change is, in general, consistent with the one observed from the
scattering images shown in Fig. 3. Lycopene mainly exists in
mature tomatoes (Pink, Light-red and Red grades); it absorbs
light at a wavelength range of 550600 nm. The mean values for
the absorption coefcient varied between 0.03 cm1 and
0.08 cm1. The pattern of spectral changes suggested that the
lycopene content in the tomatoes had likely increased steadily and
become the dominant pigment during the later grades of ripeness,
which is consistent with the growth pattern of tomato (Arias et al.,
2000; Baranska et al., 2006; Shi and Le Maquer, 2000). Overall, the
values of absorption for the spectral region of 740900 nm were
close to zero, indicating that little absorption of light took place in
the tomato tissue.
Unlike the absorption spectra, the reduced scattering coefcient spectra exhibited an exponential decrease with the increasing wavelength over the entire spectral region of 500950 nm
(Fig. 4(b)). The maximum and minimum values for all scattering
coefcient spectra were 9.32 cm1 and 3.59 cm1, respectively, for
0
all ripeness grades (Fig. 4(b)). The spectral curve of ms decreased
successively from Green to Turning and an opposite trend was
then observed from Pink to Red. The rmness of tomatoes from
the ripeness grades of Green to Turning decreases dramatically
due to the cell wall depolymerization and the increased solubility
of the middle lamella. Since smaller particles have a higher surface
area-to-volume ratio than large ones, the fruit composed of small
particles contain more scattering surfaces per unit mass than do
large particles. These physical properties directly impact the ability
of scattering particles in the tomato tissue to scatter light.
Moreover, it should be mentioned that the slope or shape of the
reduced scattering spectra also differed between the tomato fruit
Table 1
Overall accuracies (in percent) for classication of Sun Bright tomatoes into six
0
grades of ripeness, using absorption (ma) and reduced scattering (ms ) coefcients,
0
their combination (ma&ms ) and the effective attenuation coefcient (meff).a
Latent variables

7
Green

Breaker

Turning
Pink

4
Light-red

3
500

600

700

800

900

31

Red

1000

Wavelength(nm)

Overall

(b)
Fig. 4. Mean spectra of (a) absorption (ma) and (b) reduced scattering (ms )
coefcients for tomatoes samples at the six ripeness grades.
0

ma

ms

26
94.5
85.7
84.2
61.2
88.7
81.7
98.4
97.5
98.7
90.8
97.7
91.7
94.0
86.0

18
89.6
71.4
76.3
54.2
82.4
71.7
97.9
90.0
94.7
91.7
100.0
98.3
90.2
80.2

ma&ms

meff

23
96.7
84.3
84.2
70.0
88.9
80.8
98.4
98.3
97.9
93.3
98.7
90.0
94.0
86.3

28
97.9
84.3
88.9
73.3
88.4
78.3
99.2
98.3
98.6
96.7
99.7
97.5
95.3
88.4

a
The rst row (plain-faced) of numbers in each pair represents the training
results and the second row (bold-faced) the test results.

32

Q. Zhu et al. / Postharvest Biology and Technology 103 (2015) 2734

Table 2
Ripeness classication results for the test sets of Sun Bright tomatoes, using absorption coefcients ma.
Actual ripeness grade

Green

Numbera

70

Breaker

120

Turning

120

Pink

120

Light-red

120

Red

120

a
b

Ripeness gradeb

False negative error rate (%)

False positive error rate (%)

Green

Breaker

Turning

Pink

Light-red

Red

85.7
(60)
12.5
(15)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)

14.3
(10)
61.7
(74)
18.3
(22)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)

0.0
(0)
25.8
(31)
81.7
(98)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)

0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
98.3
(118)
0.8
(1)
0.0
(0)

0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
97.5
(117)
9.2
(11)

0.0 (0)

14.3

2.5

0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
1.7
(2)
1.7
(2)
90.8
(109)

38.3

5.8

18.3

5.6

1.7

0.2

2.5

2.0

9.2

0.7

The number is equal to the test sample number of each ripeness grade multiplied by 10 (10 runs).
Ripeness grades in percent, with the actual number of tomatoes for 10 runs shown in the parentheses.

Table 3
0
Ripeness classication results for the test sets of Sun Bright tomatoes, using reduced scattering coefcients ms .
Actual ripeness grade

Green

Numbera

70

Breaker

120

Turning

120

Pink

120

Light-red

120

Red

120

a
b

Ripeness gradeb
Green

Breaker

Turning

Pink

Light-red

Red

71.4
(50)
25.0
(30)
2.5
(3)
1.7
(2)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)

18.6
(13)
54.2
(65)
22.5
(27)
0.8
(1)
0.8
(1)
0.8
(1)

4.3
(3)
20.0
(24)
71.7
(86)
2.5
(3)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)

2.9
(2)
0.0
(0)
0.8
(1)
90.0
(108)
0.8
(1)
0.0
(0)

0.0
(0)
0.8
(1)
2.5
(3)
0.8
(1)
91.7
(110)
0.8
(1)

2.8
(2)
0.0
(0)
0.0
(0)
4.2
(5)
6.7
(8)
98.4
(118)

False negative error rate (%)

False positive error rate (%)

28.6

5.8

45.8

7.8

28.3

5.5

10

0.7

8.3

1.1

1.6

2.7

The number is equal to the test sample number of each ripeness grade multiplied by 10 (10 runs).
Ripeness grades in percent, with the actual number of tomatoes for 10 runs shown in the parentheses.

and varied with the grade of ripeness, which could be attributed to

the structural and/or composition changes in the tomato fruit
associated with the ripening process.
3.3. Classication into six ripeness grades
Table 1 shows the confusion matrix of average PLS-DA
classication results for Sun Bright tomato ripeness using optical
0
0
parameters ma, ms and their combinations (ma&ms and meff).
PLS-DA models based on single optical parameters achieved
classication accuracies between 61.2% and 97.5% for ma and
0
between 54.2% and 98.3% for ms for the test set of samples. In
0
comparison, the combinations of ma&ms and meff had better overall
classication accuracies, ranging between 70.0% and 98.3% and
between 73.3% and 98.3%, respectively.
Table 2 shows further detailed classication results for the test
set of tomatoes, using ma. Nearly all misclassied Green and Red
tomatoes were placed in the adjacent Breaker and Light-red
grades, respectively. The misclassied Breaker and Light-red
tomatoes were also placed in their two respective neighboring
grades, while misclassied Turning and Pink tomatoes were only
placed in one neighboring grade (i.e., Breaker and Red,
respectively). Higher classication accuracies of 98.3% and 97.5%
were obtained for Pink and Light-red tomatoes, respectively.
Lower classication accuracies of 61.7% and 81.7% for Breaker and
Turning tomatoes could have been attributed to the fact that
tomatoes at these two ripeness grades were more variable in the
distribution of the green and red colors on the surface of the fruit,

which could mean higher variability in the microstructure and,

thus, more ripeness variability within the fruit. Since the optical
property measurements were only made from the two opposite
locations on the fruit equator, they may have not been sufcient to
account for the large ripeness variation within the individual fruit.
Table 3 shows classication results for the test set of tomatoes,
0
0
using ms . Unlike ma, parameter ms presents some intricate results.
For a given ripeness grade, misclassications not only happened to
the neighboring grades, but also spread to the other ripeness
grades. This was especially apparent for Green, Breaker and
Turning tomatoes, which had higher false negative error rates
(Tiwari et al., 2013) of 28.6%, 45.8%, 28.3%, respectively. The
Table 4
Classication of Sun Bright tomatoes into three ripeness grades, using absorption
0
0
(ma) and reduced scattering (ms ) coefcients, their combination (ma&ms ) and the
effective attenuation coefcient (meff).a

Latent variables
Green/Breaker
Turning/Pink
Light-red/Red
Overall

ma

ms

22
97.0
87.0
92.8
88.4
100.0
100.0
96.6
92.1

20
93.1
73.5
89.7
78.0
99.9
99.6
94.3
84.4

ma&ms
19
95.7
86.0
92.0
91.2
100.0
99.2
95.9
92.3

eff

23
98.5
90.5
93.7
88.8
100.0
96.8
97.3
92.1

a
The rst row (plain-faced) of numbers in each pair represents the training
results and the second row (bold-faced) the test results.

Q. Zhu et al. / Postharvest Biology and Technology 103 (2015) 2734

33

Table 5
Classication results for the test set of tomatoes using absorption coefcients (ma).
Ripeness grade

Numbera

Ripeness gradeb
Green/Breaker

Turning/Pink

Light-red/Red

Green/Breaker

200

Turning/Pink

250

Light-red/Red

250

87.0
(174)
11.2
(28)
0.0
(0)

13.0
(26)
88.4
(221)
0.0
(0)

0.0
(0)
0.4
(1)
100.0
(250)

a
b

False negative error rate (%)

False positive error rate (%)

13.0

5.6

11.6

5.8

0.2

The number is equal to the test sample number of each ripeness grade multiplied by 10 (10 runs).
Ripeness grades in percent, with the actual number of tomatoes for 10 runs shown in the parentheses.

Table 6
Classication results for the test set of tomatoes, using reduced scattering coefcients (ms0 ).
Ripeness grade

Numbera

Ripeness gradeb
Green/Breaker

Turning/Pink

Light-red/Red

Green/Breaker

200

Turning/Pink

250

Light-red/Red

250

73.5
(147)
19.6
(49)
0.0
(0)

23.0
(46)
78.0
(195)
0.4
(1)

3.5
(7)
2.4
(6)
99.6
(249)

a
b

False negative error rate (%)

26.5
22
0.4

False positive error rate (%)

9.8
10.4
2.9

The number is equal to the test sample number of each ripeness grade multiplied by 10 (10 runs).
Ripeness grades in percent, with the actual number of tomatoes for 10 runs shown in the parentheses.

Turning grade embraced both highest false negative error rate

(45.8%) and false positive error rate (7.8%), with the misclassication spreading into the four other grades.
PLS-DA model using ma achieved 86.0% overall classication
accuracy for the test samples, which is signicantly better than
0
80.2% overall classication accuracy by the model using ms . This
result suggests that the change in the absorption coefcient during
tomato ripening could have been more consistent than that for the
reduced scattering coefcient. Since simultaneous changes in the
chemical compositions and the cellulosic structures take place in
the tomato during ripening, it was therefore reasonable to use the
0
combinations of ma and ms for classication of tomato ripeness. As
shown in Table 1, the overall classication accuracy increased by
0
0.35% and 7.61% for ma&ms and by 2.79% and 9.50% for meff
0
compared with the individual coefcients of ma and ms ,
respectively. The paired t-test (p  0.05) showed that the PLS-DA
0
models using meff and ma&ms achieved signicantly higher
0
classication accuracies than using ma and ms alone.
3.4. Classication into three ripeness grades
Table 4 shows the confusion matrix of the average classication
results for three ripeness grades for Sun Bright tomatoes using ma,
0
0
ms and their combinations (ma&ms and meff). The overall
classication accuracy were 92.1% and 84.4%, and the lowest
classication accuracies of 87.0% and 73.5% from Green/Breaker
0
were obtained, when the optical parameters of ma and ms were
used. Tables 5 and 6 show detailed classication results for the test
0
set of tomatoes using ma and ms . The three-grade classication
accuracies by the absorption coefcient were 87.0%, 88.4%, 100%,
respectively, which are better than 73.5%, 78.0%, 99.6% for Green/
Breaker, Turning/Pink and Light-red/Red using the reduced
0
scattering coefcient. The t-test (p  0.05) indicated that ma&ms
and meff yielded the same classication accuracies as ma alone. The
results seem surprising, in view of the improved results obtained
for the six-grade classication using the combinations of the two
parameters. One possible explanation is that since there were
greater differences between the three grades of tomatoes, and

under such a situation, extra information gained with the

0
combinations of ma and ms was not sufcient to improve the
performance of the classication model.
Choi et al. (1995) developed a color image analysis method to
classify fresh tomato into six ripeness grades according to the
USDA standard classication. They reported 77.5% classication
accuracy, which is signicantly lower than the overall classication
accuracies of 80.286.0%, obtained using the two optical parameters in this research. Choi et al. (1995) reported a much higher
classication accuracy of 98.3% for three ripeness grades, which is
better than that obtained in the current research. Using magnetic
resonance imaging technique for classication of 144 defect-free
tomato fruit, Zhang and McCarthya (2012) achieved 90.4%
classication accuracy with PLS-DA models for three grades of
ripeness [i.e., Green, Breaker-Light Red (including Breaker,
Turning, Pink, and Light-red), and Red], which is lower than
92.1% classication accuracy obtained in this research. However,
caution should be taken when comparing the results for different
studies, as factors like measurement technique, cultivar and
condition of test samples could all have affected the classication
results. Nevertheless, this research has clearly demonstrated the
robustness and viability of using the optical parameters to classify
tomato ripeness.
4. Conclusion
In this study, the optical absorption and scattering properties of
Sun Bright tomatoes for the wavelengths of 500950 nm were
measured and used for assessing ripeness. PLS-DA models were
developed to classify tomatoes into six or three ripeness grades,
0
respectively, using the optical parameters ma and ms and their
0
0
combinations (i.e., ma&ms and meff). PLS-DA models for ma, ms ,
0
ma&ms and meff yielded 86.0%, 80.2%, 86.3% and 88.4% classication
accuracies for the test set, and the paired t-test (p  0.05) showed
that the PLS-DA models using meff had better classication
0
accuracies than using ma and ms alone, when the tomatoes were
classied into six ripeness grades. When the fruit were classied
0
into three ripeness grades, the discriminant models for ma, ms ,

34

Q. Zhu et al. / Postharvest Biology and Technology 103 (2015) 2734

ma&ms0 and meff achieved better overall classication accuracies of

92.1%, 84.4%, 92.3% and 92.1%, respectively. This study showed that
the optical absorption and reduced scattering coefcients can
provide an effective means for assessing the ripeness of tomatoes.
Disclaimer
Mention of commercial products in this publication is solely for
the purpose of providing specic information and does not imply
recommendation or endorsement by the U.S. Department of
Agriculture. USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer.
Acknowledgments
Dr. Qibing Zhu and Miss. Chunliu He gratefully acknowledge
nancial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of
China (Grant nos. 61275155 and 61271384) and the 111 Project
(B12018).
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