Fruits and vegetables are the most important sources of our daily nutrition. The quality of fruit is a major aspect from the point of view of consumers. Measures of fruit quality include both the internal and external properties. The internal quality mainly is determined by aroma, flavour, taste, texture, nutritional quality (e.g. soluble sugar content, starch, organic acids, soluble solids content, carotenoids, total flavonoids, total phenolics, antioxidant activity, etc.), flesh firmness, diseases, and chemical residues. The external quality mainly concerns the appearance, size, colour, and bruises.

How to measure fruit quality has always been one of the most attractive research topics in the food industry. At present, most of the available investigative methods are still destructive and labour- and time-consuming. Several methods require sample preparation as well as costly instruments and chemicals which cannot be used for large-scale sample evaluation. With the increasing demands for real-time detection of fruit quality, non-destructive fruit evaluation methods have been greatly developed. However, problems like low detection accuracy and poor model adaptability still remain in the non-destructive detection system. Thus, it is necessary to develop non-destructive, highly efficient, simple, accurate, and low labour cost techniques for fruit quality determination.

This Special Issue is focused on new non-destructive methods for the evaluation of fruit and vegetable quality. New non-destructive instruments (like high precision equipment for experimental research, handheld equipment with low costs and reliable data for field workers, market managers and consumers, etc.), new or improved non-destructive methods for quality evaluation (including developing software for data mining and analysis, and construction of large databases for accurate prediction models) are encouraged. The non-destructive quality detection technologies can be based on acoustic, ultrasound, electrical, optical, and imaging properties. These technologies can be used for real-time inspection of fruit and vegetable quality during growth and postharvest life. Original research and review articles are welcome.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

• The development of methods used for fruit quality evaluation
• New or improved non-destructive methods for fruit quality evaluation of horticultural crops (such as developing software for data mining and analysis, and construction of large databases for accurate prediction models)
• Develop and application of new non-destructive instruments (such as high precision equipment for experimental research, low-cost handheld equipment, and reliable data for field workers, market managers, and consumers, etc.)
• New technologies for real-time inspection of fruit quality during ripening and postharvest life