Scholarlink

<p>Fruits and vegetables account for around a third of all food loss and waste. Post-harvest, retail and consumer losses and waste could be reduced with better ripeness assessment methods. Here we develop a sub-terahertz metamaterial sticker (called Meta-Sticker) that can be attached to a fruit to provide insights into the edible mesocarp’s ripeness without cutting into the produce. The fruit acts as a complex multilayer substrate to Meta-Sticker and, when excited by sub-terahertz signals, generates two distinct resonances: localized dipole resonance that correlates with the exocarp’s refractive index; and propagating plasmon resonance that penetrates into the mesocarp and resembles the rare phenomenon of ‘extraordinary transmission’. The Meta-Sticker accurately predicted the ripeness of different fruits with a cumulative normalized root mean square error of 0.54% of the produce tested. This study offers a non-invasive, low-cost and biodegradable solution for accurate ripeness assessment with applications in distribution optimization and food waste reduction.</p>

错误：搜索内容不能为空，请输入英文关键词
错误：关键词超出字数限制，请精简
高级检索

Sub-terahertz metamaterial stickers for non-invasive fruit ripeness sensing

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

    开放获取

  • 发表日期：

    2025年1月2日

查看全文
  • Subhajit Karmakar,
  • Atsutse Kludze,
  • Ranveer Chandra,
  • Yasaman Ghasempour

摘要

Fruits and vegetables account for around a third of all food loss and waste. Post-harvest, retail and consumer losses and waste could be reduced with better ripeness assessment methods. Here we develop a sub-terahertz metamaterial sticker (called Meta-Sticker) that can be attached to a fruit to provide insights into the edible mesocarp’s ripeness without cutting into the produce. The fruit acts as a complex multilayer substrate to Meta-Sticker and, when excited by sub-terahertz signals, generates two distinct resonances: localized dipole resonance that correlates with the exocarp’s refractive index; and propagating plasmon resonance that penetrates into the mesocarp and resembles the rare phenomenon of ‘extraordinary transmission’. The Meta-Sticker accurately predicted the ripeness of different fruits with a cumulative normalized root mean square error of 0.54% of the produce tested. This study offers a non-invasive, low-cost and biodegradable solution for accurate ripeness assessment with applications in distribution optimization and food waste reduction.