Actual Pathogen Detection: Sensors and Algorithms - a Review

Pathogens feed on fruits and vegetables causing great food losses or at least reduction of their shelf life. These pathogens can cause losses of the final product or in the farms were the products are grown, attacking leaves, stems and trees. This review analyses disease detection sensors and algorithms for both the farm and postharvest management of fruit and vegetable quality. Mango, avocado, apple, tomato, potato, citrus and grapes were selected as the fruits and vegetables for study due to their world-wide consumption. Disease warning systems for predicting pathogens and insects on farms during fruit and vegetable production are commonly used for all the crops and are available where meteorological stations are present. It can be seen that these disease risk systems are being slowly replaced by remote sensing monitoring in developed countries. Satellite images have reduced their temporal resolution, but are expensive and must become cheaper for their use world-wide. In the last 30 years, a lot of research has been carried out in non-destructive sensors for food quality. Actually, non-destructive technology has been applied for sorting high quality fruit which is desired by the consumer. The sensors require algorithms to work properly; the most used being discriminant analysis and training neural networks. New algorithms will be required due to the high quantity of data acquired and its processing, and for disease warning strategies for disease detection.