Abstract

A novel methodology "fractal browning indicator" (FBI) is presented, that describes the enzymatic browning kinetic based on the use of irregular color patterns from banana slice images. It uses the fractal Fourier texture image value in a selected area, to calculate a fractal dimension (FD), which represents the complexity of color distribution. During the procedure, colors from digital images were first transformed to L*a*b* space color using a transformation function (quadratic model), in order to derivate three color channels, lightness (L*), redness (a*), and yellowness (b*). In the results, lightness and yellowness parameters decreased during the browning kinetic, when their respective FD values increased, indicating major color distribution complexity in a selected area analyzed during the kinetic. The redness color (a*) did not show any statistical variation. The empirical power law model was suitable to correlate enzymatic browning kinetic data both for FBI and for the traditional method (when an L* mean was used). However, enzymatic browning rates using the FBI method, were between 8.5 and 35 times higher than rates calculated with the traditional method. © 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.