Mass modeling of strawberry (Fragaria × Ananasa) based on selected physical attributes
Sapna Birania, Arun Kumar Attkan, Sunil Kumar, Nitin Kumar, Vijay Kumar Singh
Abstract
Abstract Strawberry (Fragaria × ananasa) is one of the most popular soft and delicious fruits used as such or for flavor production. In this study, different physical characteristics such as dimensions, weight, volume, geometric mean diameter, sphericity, and projected areas were determined and the prediction of mass based on these physical characteristics was done, using five models: linear, quadratic, power, S‐curve, and logarithmic of different size grades (large, medium, and small) and ungraded fruits. The results showed that the mass modeling of ungraded fruits resulted in the best model fitting as compared to the graded fruits. The linear model ( M = −2.874 + 0.001 V) based on the actual volume of ungraded fruits was the best‐fitted model, having the highest R 2 value of 0.996 for the prediction of mass of strawberry. Among all the graded fruits, the most appropriate model was linearly based ( M = −2.45 + 0.001 V) on the actual volume of the large size strawberry with an R 2 value of 0.984. The results showed that the models based on the actual volume were the most appropriate models in both graded and ungraded fruits. Practical Applications Fruit grading based on mass is an important feature of packaging since it reduces the handling wastage and transport resources by improving packaging formations and also optimizes the marketability of products. Fruits of uniform size, shape, and weight are generally preferred by consumers. Horticultural crops are usually graded based on size, appearance, and weight. Fruit mass is generally used as a grading parameter in automatic graders because of its accuracy and effectiveness of the operation. Thus, the study directed the mass modeling of strawberry fruit based on some selected engineering properties so that the results can be used to develop a precise automatic grading system for fruit grading based on the mutual approach of mass and size of the fruit. This paper makes available information about the interaction between the mass of the fruit and its axial dimensions, volume, and projected area.