Low-Cost Pocket Fluorometer and Chemometric Tools for Green and Rapid Screening of Deoxynivalenol in Durum Wheat Bran.

Cereal crops are frequently contaminated by deoxynivalenol (DON), a harmful type of mycotoxin produced by several species fungi. The early detection of mycotoxin contamination is crucial for ensuring safety and quality of food and feed products, for preventing health risks and for avoiding economic losses because of product rejection or costly mycotoxin removal. A LED-based pocket-size fluorometer is presented that allows a rapid and low-cost screening of DON-contaminated durum wheat bran samples, without using chemicals or product handling.

Smartphone-Enabled Colorimetry.

A smartphone is used as a colorimeter. The performance characterization for colorimetry is presented using both the built-in camera and a clip-on dispersive grating. Certified colorimetric samples provided by Labsphere are considered as test samples.

Evaluation of the Fruit Quality and Phytochemical Compounds in Peach and Nectarine Cultivars.

Qualitative traits and chemical properties of 32 peach cultivars (yellow flesh and white flesh fruits) and 52 nectarine cultivars (yellow flesh and white flesh fruits) of different pomological characteristics is performed, and the correlation between cultivars and chemical characteristics is analyzed. Yellow nectarines have a higher variability in soluble solids concentration (SSC) and titratable acidity (TA) values. Evaluation of color parameters (a*, b*, L*) shows a significant interaction between pulp color (white vs.

Bluetooth-Connected Pocket Spectrometer and Chemometrics for Olive Oil Applications.

Unsaturated fatty acids are renowned for their beneficial effects on the cardiovascular system. The high content of unsaturated fatty acids is a benefit of vegetable fats and an important nutraceutical indicator. The ability to quickly check fat composition of an edible oil could be advantageous for both consumers and retailers.

A Study of Overripe Seed Byproducts from Sun-Dried Grapes by Dispersive Raman Spectroscopy.

Overripe seeds from sun-dried grapes submitted to postharvest dehydration constitute a scarcely investigated class of vinification byproduct with limited reports on their phenolic composition and industrial applications. In this study, Raman spectroscopy was applied to characterize a selection of overripe seed byproducts from different white grapes (cv. Moscatel, cv.

Fourier transform near-infrared and mid-infrared spectroscopy as efficient tools for rapid screening of deoxynivalenol contamination in wheat bran.

Background: Deoxynivalenol (DON) is the most common Fusarium mycotoxin occurring in wheat and wheat-derived products, with several adverse and toxic effects in animals and humans. Although bran fractions produced by milling wheat have numerous health benefits, cereal bran is the part of the grain with the highest concentration of DON, thus representing a risk for consumers. Increased efforts have been made to develop analytical methods suitable for rapid DON screening.

Prediction Models for Assessing Lycopene in Open-Field Cultivated Tomatoes by Means of a Portable Reflectance Sensor: Cultivar and Growing-Season Effects.

Reflectance spectroscopy represents a useful tool for the nondestructive assessment of tomato lycopene, even in the field. For this reason, a compact, low-cost, light emitting diode-based sensor has been developed to measure reflectance in the 400-750 nm spectral range. It was calibrated against wet chemistry and evaluated by partial least squares (PLS) regression analyses.

Observation of eight ancient olive trees (Olea europaea L.) growing in the Garden of Gethsemane.

For thousands of years, olive trees (Olea europaea L.) have been a significant presence and a symbol in the Garden of Gethsemane, a place located at the foot of the Mount of Olives, Jerusalem, remembered for the agony of Jesus Christ before his arrest. This investigation comprises the first morphological and genetic characterization of eight olive trees in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Visible and near-infrared absorption spectroscopy by an integrating sphere and optical fibers for quantifying and discriminating the adulteration of extra virgin olive oil from Tuscany.

Because of its high price, extra virgin olive oil is frequently targeted for adulteration with lower quality oils. This paper presents an innovative optical technique capable of quantifying and discriminating the adulteration of extra virgin olive oil caused by lower-grade olive oils. An original set-up for diffuse-light absorption spectroscopy in the wide 400-1,700 nm spectral range was experimented.