Analysis of Walnut Freshness: Preliminary Study

With shifting lifestyles, the food industry has adopted fast food as a solution to keep up with the pace of the age. However, as the demand for healthier alternatives grows, snacks enriched with healthy fats such as almonds, pistachio and walnuts have emerged as some of the most favored choices. In this study, three different walnut samples (empty, fresh and rancid) were simulated to investigate the freshness of walnuts. For each sample type, three different sizes were designed to obtain the transmission coefficients (TCs) from pyramidal horn antennas between 6.8-12.4 GHz. The Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) value of between walnut samples (empty-healthy, rancid-healthy and empty-rancid) for the three sample sets was calculated. The results indicate a significant difference in the transmission coefficient (TC) for the fresh walnuts, enabling the assessment of walnut freshness through the inherent microwave properties.