Qualitative Characterization of Astringent and De-astringed Intact 'Xichu' Persimmon Fruit Using VIS/SWNIR and Chemometrics

Astringency removal is considered as a key process before commercialize persimmon cv. 'Xichu', due to its high content of soluble tannins. Application of carbon dioxide treatment effective in removing astringency and widely used as a commercial postharvest practice for astringent persimmon fruit. The aim of this research is study to the application of visible and shortwave near infrared (VIS/SWNIR) spectroscopy in the spectral data of 400-1100 nm to discriminate astringent (A) and de-astringed (DA) fruit non-destructively based on the sensorial perception as 0.10% soluble tannin of fresh weight. The highest classification accuracy score was obtained from QDA model combined with 2D preprocessing technique as 98.99% in the external validation set. Therefore, the results obtained in this study can be considered as a non-destructive analytical method to monitoring the effectiveness of the astringency removal treatment in 'Xichu' persimmon fruit.