Sensegood spectrophotometer for color measurement in nuts & dry fruits

No customer would be ready to pay for off colored dry fruits, thinking it to be of low quality and low in nutrition value. Dry fruit is considered comparatively high priced segment, consumer expects the quality for the price paid. If a product doesn’t look as expected, it will never get to be tasted.



Researchers [1] with affiliations including Biological and Agricultural Engineering, University of California – Davis and United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) carried out measurements for walnut varieties. The results obtained revealed the potential of using the relationship between color indices of L* and moisture content to sort walnuts before drying, which is essential to avoid over-drying, increase drying capacity, reduce energy use by 25%-50% [2], and obtain high quality walnut products.

Apart from drying, nuts are often roasted for color and flavor enhancement. Ensure controlled amount of roasting by establishing color tolerances in Sensegood spectrophotometer. Sensegood spectrophotometer is the versatile device that is engineered to work as handheld/portable, benchtop/table-top or in-process/online color measurement instrument. It helps in picking up even the slightest color difference over the production batches. It helps in finding difference between two colors and shows result in percentage match.

Color measurement information in nuts enables to determine postharvest processing, shelf life, grading, sorting, and supply management. Producers, warehouse managers, dried and packaged food (roasted dry fruits) manufacturers and food processors rely on the capabilities of Sensegood spectrophotometer for determining quality and maintaining color consistency over different production batches. Also L*, a*, b* color space values indicate light, redness/greenness and yellowness/blueness; useful in determining quality of white, yellow, green or brown textured dry fruits

From raw material to final product, Sensegood spectrophotometer comprehensively evaluates the color attributes of various samples, including solids, liquids, powders and pastes. Sample can be non homogeneous with different shape and size. Sensegood spectrophotometer has rotating sample platform with large viewing area (sensor’s field of view). It takes multiple measurements over number of rotations and generates average result representing the sample’s color. As a result, consistency can be maintained and quality standards can be met with less waste, time, and effort.

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References :

1. Ragab Khir, Griffiths G. Atungulu, Zhongli Pan, James F. Thompson & Xia Zheng (2014) Moisture-Dependent Color Characteristics of Walnuts, International Journal of Food Properties, 17:4, 877-890, https://doi.org/10.1080/10942912.2012.675610
2. Thompson, J.F. and Grant, J.A. 1992. New moisture meter could curb over drying of walnuts, California Agriculture, 46(2): 31–34. https://doi.org/10.3733/ca.v046n02p31

This article is about the use of spectrophotometer or full spectrum colorimeter for color measurement in dry fruits – almond, apricot, betel nut (supaari), cashew, cantaloupe seeds (melon seeds, magajtari), coconut, cudpahnut (charoli), raisin (kishmish), dates (khajoor), dates dried (khaarek), fig (anjeer), ground nuts (peanuts), lotus seeds pop (makhana), pistachio (pista), walnuts which are some of the most commonly consumed dry fruits.