Non-Destructive Detection of Soluble Solids Content in Fruits: A Review

Soluble solids content (SSC) in fruits, as one of the key indicators of fruit quality, plays a critical role in postharvest quality assessment and grading. While traditional destructive methods can provide precise measurements of sugar content, they have limitations such as damaging the fruit’s integrity and the inability to perform rapid detection. In contrast, non-destructive detection technologies offer the advantage of preserving the fruit’s integrity while enabling fast and efficient sugar content measurements, making them highly promising for applications in fruit quality detection. This review summarizes recent advances in non-destructive detection technologies for fruit sugar content measurement. It focuses on elucidating the principles, advantages, and limitations of mainstream technologies, including near-infrared spectroscopy (NIR), X-ray technology, computer vision (CV), electronic nose (EN) technology and so on. Critically, our analysis identifies key challenges hindering the broader implementation of these technologies, namely: the integration and optimization of multi-technology approaches, the development of robust intelligent and automated detection systems, and issues related to high equipment costs and barriers to widespread adoption. Based on this assessment, we conclude by proposing targeted future research directions. These focus on overcoming the identified challenges to advance the development and practical application of non-destructive SSC detection technologies, ultimately contributing to the modernization and intelligentization of the fruit industry.