Recent trends in non-destructive techniques for quality assessment of edible mushrooms

Mushrooms, as a delicacy on the table, provide people with high nutritional value. Mushroom quality is affected by factors such as geographic environment, storage time, etc. Emerging nondestructive techniques have the advantages of nondestructiveness, efficiency and simplicity, which provide a wide range of application prospects for quality assessment of edible mushrooms. This paper summarizes recent advances in the application of vibrational spectroscopy, ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy, and electronic sensing techniques to the identification of edible mushroom source, species identification, storage time identification, and content prediction. It also provides an outlook on new areas and technologies for quality assessment of edible mushrooms. The results of the study showed that non-destructive techniques (NDT) combined with chemometrics are satisfactory for quality assessment of edible mushrooms. The spectral fusion technique was widely found to be more capable of encompassing complex chemical information for research purposes in its application. Meanwhile, it was found during the evaluation process that the grade assessment and finished packaging of mushrooms had not been quality assessed. Whether emerging nondestructive techniques and terahertz spectroscopy can be further applied in this area needs to be further investigated. Therefore, new techniques and methods could be developed for future exploration.