In Washington state, pears are typically cultivated on trees with large canopies, which results in different levels of sun exposure and, therefore, fruit maturity variability at harvest and postharvest. Hyperspectral reflectance imaging has been previously used to detect sun stress and predict sunscald risk through a chlorophyll-carotenoid index (Cri; 430, 662, 454, 549 nm) on apples. The objective of this work was to adapt a non-destructive sorting index to standardize groups of fruit with predictive postharvest outcomes throughout the cold chain and treatments. d ‘Anjou pears were harvested from different canopy positions (internal, external, and random) in three commercial blocks during 2023. Hyperspectral images (640 x 840 px; 400–1100 nm) were captured from the exposed and unexposed sides of the fruit at harvest. The reflectance information was then extracted and pre-processed with Savizky-Golay and Standard Normal Variate filters. With this information, the Cri was calculated for every fruit. Cri values ranged from 0.9 to 3.6 for fruit from external canopy positions and 1.1 to 3.8 for those from internal ones. The analysis of variance showed significant differences in Cri values across fruit sides and tree positions (p < 0.01). These findings support the viability of using the chlorophyll-carotenoid index to sort pears with different sun stress levels at harvest. Further research is needed to evaluate the consistency in response of the different fruit groups when submitted to different cold chain scenarios and postharvest treatments.
