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The Perfect Tomato
Published in Denise Wilson, Sensing the Perfect Tomato, 2019
Frequently, overall sugar content in fruit is measured in the field using a Brix meter, where a unit of 1° Brix represents 1 gram of sugar in 100 grams of solution. Brix meters are commercially available and range from inexpensive (less than $20) manually operated devices to fully digitized devices that run into the thousands of dollars. They were originally designed and calibrated to identify sucrose content in solution but are often used to estimate total sugar content by measuring the refractive index of a liquid or solution. Thus, they provide a rough estimate of other sugars in solution, such as the substantial amounts of fructose and glucose that dominate the sugar content in the tomato. Unfortunately, refractive index is not only affected differently by nonsucrose sugars compared to sucrose but is also vulnerable to other changes in parameters that occur naturally during maturation and ripening, such as pH. Thus, using Brix to understand sugar content in tomatoes will always generate, to some extent, fundamental inaccuracies and vulnerability to interference. Differentiating sucrose from fructose and glucose as well as other common interferents often requires more complex laboratory equipment and is frequently not cost effective.
Units and Dimensions
Published in C. Anandharamakrishnan, S. Padma Ishwarya, Essentials and Applications of Food Engineering, 2019
C. Anandharamakrishnan, S. Padma Ishwarya
Density: It is the measure of the mass of a substance per unit volume. Density is a mechanical property of foods which is temperature-dependent since volume expands with an increase in temperature. It is used to characterize a food product and used in process calculations. The major application of density in the beverage (soft drinks) industry is to provide the Brix value which quantifies the sugar content. On the other hand, in the fragrance and flavors industry, density, or more specifically, the specific gravity (density of a substance in relation to that of water) is a primary quality indicator of the incoming raw materials (Wei et al., 2007; Singh et al., 1997; Mirica et al., 2010). Measurement of density facilitates the detection of adulteration which even the human nose cannot detect. For example, Brazilian Bois de rose oil has a specific gravity of 0.8680–0.8910. Pure synthetic linalool has a specific gravity of 0.8580–0.8620. The main constituent of unadulterated Bois de rose oil is linalool, and if it is adulterated with pure synthetic linalool, its specific gravity is expected to drop below 0.8680. Thus, the adulteration can be easily identified which may be very difficult to identify by odor (Dixit, 2006). Density is also a key determining factor of the packaging cost of a food product as a dry product with high density requires lesser storage space and hence a smaller unit of packaging (bag or can) compared to a moist product with low bulk density. Expressions for the density (ρ) of major constituents in food as a function of temperature (T) are as follows:
Refractive Index Measurement
Published in John G. Webster, Halit Eren, Measurement, Instrumentation, and Sensors Handbook, 2017
Refractive index is measured for many reasons. It is clearly important to know the refractive index of materials used for their clarity, such as glasses and solid plastics. In complex fluids such as drinks or foods, the refractive index is a measure of dissolved or submicronic material. The Brix scale relates refractive index to sugar concentration. Common industrial applications are to microemulsions to measure their oil/water ratio, to antifreeze to check the glycol/water ratio, and to inaccessible liquids such as the electrolyte of rechargeable cells [2]. The clinical applications of light have stimulated interest in biotissue refractometry [3], and refractometry is useful for the analysis of small samples of biofluids.
Estimation of the sugar content of fruit by energy-resolved computed tomography using a material decomposition method
Published in Journal of Nuclear Science and Technology, 2021
Generally, sugar content is measured in the unit of degrees Brix (°Bx); the sugar content of a 100-g solution containing 1 g of sucrose at 20°C is defined as 1 °Bx. Sucrose consists of glucose and fructose, which are isomers of each other.
Relationship between drying and grinding parameters and physicochemical properties of Hibiscus sabdariffa calyx powders
Published in Particulate Science and Technology, 2023
Cho Urielle M’be, Joel Scher, Jeremy Petit, NG George Amani, Jennifer Burgain
The pH of reconstituted powders was measured using a pH-meter (Mettler toledo, Five easy plus). Brix of solutions (90% of water and 10% powder) was measured at 20 °C using a hand-held refractometer (ATAGO, Master-M).