Non-Destructive Testing to Determine Quality and Maturity of Coconut and Coconut Products

The coconut tree is aptly called the ‘tree of life’, providing us with multiple useful products. Coconut, being the prime of them, warrants maturity assessment to be appropriately graded for further application and processing. The selection of the appropriate grade and maturity is of utmost importance in the case of coconut export. The major change that occurs in a coconut during its maturity is the water-to-coconut ratio. Coconut water is a unique nutritious drink that is consumed in raw and processed form. The yield and quality of coconut water depend on multiple factors including variety (or coconut genotype) and maturity stage of the coconut. As a result, the quality of the coconut water must be assessed. Nondestructive techniques prove to be quick and efficient; moreover, the loss of samples can be avoided in such techniques. This chapter includes concepts of quality control on characteristics such as weight, browning, heat sensitivity, pH, turbidity, structural changes in protein, sensory changes of coconut, besides other traits including buoyancy, pH, TSS, colour, osmolarity, morphology, and flavour for coconut water. These characteristics have been considered for development and selection of techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging, spectroscopy, and acoustic techniques, which utilize the change in water-to-kernel ratio at various maturity stages as their key determinant for designing systems of non-destructive quality evaluation system. Although non-destructive techniques help in the conservation and usage of food samples (in this case, coconut and coconut products), improvement in the accuracy of the classification is called for due to the complexity of the composition and structure of coconuts especially.