X-ray imaging for fungal necrotic spot detection in pistachio nuts

The potential of X-ray imaging for detecting pistachios with kernel necrotic (KN) spots was the main objective of this study. X-ray images of whole pistachios were compared with colour pictures of the same nuts taken after the kernel was opened by splitting it in two. The necrotic spots appear in the X-ray images as darker gray areas of almost round shape. Also, pistachios with KN spots contained about 60 times more aflatoxin than healthy ones in an aflatoxin contaminated sample. Elimination of such nuts will reduce aflatoxin in contaminated batches and improve the quality in batches free of aflatoxin.