Development of a Rapid Evaluation Method for Cane Deterioration Using Near-infrared Spectroscopy

Abstract

Deteriorated sugarcane considerably decreases sugar production in sugar mills. This study investigated a rapid evaluation method to determine cane deterioration using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). We examined the calibration models of sucrose, glucose, and fructose in deteriorated cane juice using NIRS. The ratio of sucrose to the total sugar components (pure sucrose ratio) was proposed as the quality index for cane deterioration because the conventional method could not analyze sugar content. Accuracy of the calibration models for each sugar component and pure sucrose ratio was adequate to detect cane deterioration. Moreover, deterioration of cane could be predicted using the NIRS on payment data. These results indicate that it is possible to identify deteriorated sugarcane using NIRS.