Using infrared thermography to evaluate the injuries of cold-stored guava

Abstract

This study aimed to identify using the infrared (IR) thermography data the injuries of guavas during cooling and storage at different temperatures. Three experiments were performed at three different temperatures with one storage time. The first experiment was done with static air in a refrigerator at 5 °C, the second experiment was conducted in a tunnel with forced air at 10 °C, and the third experiment was conducted in an air conditioned environment at 20 °C. Mechanical injuries caused by the impact of a pendulum were induced on guava surfaces. The surface temperatures were obtained for bruised and sound tissues during cooling and storage using an Infrared (IR) camera. With thermography, it was possible to distinguish the injured tissues of the fruits that were unaffected at temperatures of 5, 10 and 20 °C in first hours of cooling. The results suggest that the storage of guava fruits at 5 °C in static air resulted in cold-induced injury, while storage at 20 °C resulted in an altered activity pattern. The stored guava fruits were analyzed for mass loss, firmness, color, total sugars, total pectin and solubility. The parameters values were lower during the forced-air cooling and storage at 5 and 10 °C. When stored at 20 °C, there was fruit maturation that caused tissue softening, which makes the fruits more susceptible to deterioration and thermographic readings showed opposite trends.