Ethylene detection methods in post-harvest technology: A review

The detection of the vegetal hormone ethylene at low concentrations is today a critical issue, in particular, but not only, in horticultural industry. In fact, even at sub ppm concentration, ethylene works as natural ripening agent and, in addition, it is a marker of the ripening stage of several fresh products, whose wasting away causes losses for millions dollars every year. For these reasons, in the last decade, an increasing demand for robust, cheap and accurate ethylene sensors has been recorded. In this paper, the recent progresses in the field of ethylene detection are briefly reviewed, with particular attention to those methods being suitable for the monitoring of fresh products. Furthermore, a short explanation of the working principle of the various devices is provided.