Evaluation of the relationship between capacitance and freshness of carrot during storage

It is generally believed that there is a close correlation between the dielectric properties and the freshness of fresh plant tissues. The present investigation was conducted using so-called two-parallel-plate electrodes to reveal the correlation between capacitance and freshness of carrot during storage. The results showed that along with the storage time, there was an increase of the hardness of fruit meat and a decade of the surface luster, freshness, and the skin shriveling of carrot. There was an apparent correlation between the capacitance and freshness of the carrot at low frequency range (0.1 to 100 kHz). These results suggested an applicability to evaluate the freshness of carrot by using the capacitance during storage, to realize the automatic and nondestructive monitoring of vegetable freshness.