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The Near Infrared Determination of Moisture in Whole Dates

1991; American Society for Horticultural Science; Volume: 26; Issue: 10 Linguagem: Inglês

10.21273/hortsci.26.10.1303

2327-9834

Gerald G. Dull, R. G. Leffler, Gerald S. Birth, A. Zaltzman, Ze’ev Schmilovitch,

Date Palm Research Studies

Whole dates (Phoenix dactylifera L.) were analyzed for moisture content using near infrared spectrophotometry in a direct transmittance geometry. In the calibration experiment using 72 samples, the correlation coefficient was 0.977 and the standard error of calibration (SEC) was 0.89%. When the calibration equation was used to predict the moisture in another set of 72 date samples, the standard error of performance (SEP) was 1.5%. When the method was used to sort these 72 dates into four industry-standard grades, 74% were correctly graded and 15% missed the grade by <1 SEC.