Basic Study on a Quality Evaluation Method for Deteriorated Sugarcane Using Near Infrared Spectroscopy

Abstract

Deteriorated sugarcane leads to decreased quality and lower efficiency in the sugar crystallization process. In this study, we investigated a quality evaluation method for shredded samples using near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). Most of the deteriorated samples could not be detected with polarimetric method. Therefore, the Brix value was used for a quality index of fresh and deteriorated cane in this test. A calibration model developed with fresh samples gave lower accuracy for deteriorated samples (RMSEP＝0.82 °Brix). However, a calibration model developed with fresh and deteriorated samples was more accurate than the previous test (RMSEP＝0.49 °Brix). We concluded that NIRS is a useful method to evaluate quality of deteriorated cane samples.