[POS] Other disciplines

[POS-70] Evaluation of differences between cultivars and grades of strawberries through quantitative shape analysis

*Shumpei Asai¹, Koji Noshita^1,2 (1. Graduate School of Systems Life Sciences, Faculty of Science, Kyushu University (Japan), 2. Faculty of Science, Kyushu University (Japan))

Keywords:

strawberry,cultivars,grades,shape

Fruits are used in food products for taste, flavor, and appearance; their shape affects their value. However, the criteria for evaluating shape are subjective and vary among evaluators. Consistency can be achieved by utilizing machines to establish objective criteria, contributing to improved fruit quality. Traditionally, two-dimensional image analyses have been commonly used for fruit evaluation. However, three-dimensional shape analysis is more suitable because fruit shapes are inherently three-dimensional. In this study, we used strawberries as a model to perform 3D reconstruction and analyzed their shapes quantitatively using spherical harmonic functions. Strawberries have been developed into various cultivars with diverse shapes. Even within the same cultivar, different grades may exhibit shape variations. This study analyzed strawberry fruits to investigate differences between cultivars and grades of quality. We analyzed three strawberry cultivars with two grades each to examine their differences. Our findings revealed that strawberries classified as the lower grade exhibited greater variation in shape compared to the higher grade. On the other hand, no significant differences in morphospace occupation patterns were observed among the three cultivars.