Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture最新文献

{"title":"Anxiety for the planet, health for the body: the relationship between eco-anxiety and the Mediterranean diet in Turkish young adults.","authors":"Cansu Memiç-İnan, Ceren Şarahman-Kahraman, İrem Topal, Simge Toptaş","doi":"10.1002/jsfa.14365","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/jsfa.14365","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Eco-anxiety is a psychological state that expresses concerns about climate change and is thought to affect individuals' adherence to the Mediterranean diet; however, no study has examined this relationship. This study aimed to examine the relationship between eco-anxiety and adherence to the Mediterranean diet in young adults, one of the age groups most affected by eco-anxiety.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Of the 736 individuals who participated in the study, 70.5% were female, and the mean age was 20.9 ± 1.8 years. Higher levels of eco-anxiety were found in females and in those studying in health-related departments (P < 0.05). The eco-anxiety score tends to be higher in individuals with a higher Mediterranean diet adherence scale score (β = 0.322, 95% CI: 0.129-0.503, P = 0.001) and in those in health-related departments (β = 4.541, 95% CI: 3.729-5.317, P < 0.001), while it tends to decrease with higher income levels (β = -0.622, 95% CI: -1.171 to -0.072, P = 0.027). CONCLUSİON: The study results indicate that eco-anxiety is not entirely negative. Moderate levels of eco-anxiety may enhance awareness of environmental issues and support adherence to the Mediterranean diet. © 2025 The Author(s). Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.</p>","PeriodicalId":17725,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-05-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144027375","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A global systematic review and meta-analysis of virus prevalence in vegetables and fruits: meta-regression approaches of climatology and food security index effects.","authors":"Fataneh Hashempour-Baltork, Adel Mirza Alizadeh, Sarah Ghasemi, Kosar Gerami, Saeid Vahedi, Samira Mardanian-Jaghanab, Hedayat Hosseini, Naim Montazeri, Hassan Hassanzadazar, Hossein Rastegar","doi":"10.1002/jsfa.14330","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/jsfa.14330","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted to investigate the spread of viral contamination (hepatitis A, human norovirus, astrovirus and adenovirus) in vegetables and fruits. The most frequent types of vegetables involved were chicory (73%), silver beet (50%), watercress (34%), leek (30%) and purslane (21%). Vegetables exhibited a higher pooled prevalence of viral contamination (2%; 95% confidence interval = 1-3%) than fruits (no prevalence was observed). High levels of virus prevalence in vegetables were recorded in Argentina (35%), Egypt (23%) and Belgium (23%), whereas, for fruits, the most contaminated products were related to products from Egypt (20%). The most common viral contaminations in products were human astrovirus (29%) and human adenovirus (26%) for vegetables and porcine adenovirus (2%) for fruits. Fresh vegetables (2%) and frozen fruits (4%) had higher reports of viral prevalence than frozen vegetables and fresh fruits. In addition, frozen vegetables and fresh fruits were not reported for viral contamination. Our findings showed that the prevalence of virus prevalence has a direct relationship with climatological parameters, and regardless of Egypt (total 25.52% contamination), areas with humidity above the range of 65-70%, average temperature of 10-15 °C and annual rainfall of approximately 1000 mm, the prevalence showed higher viral contamination (P < 0.05). Moreover, the results show that countries with a low Global Food Security Index had high infection rates (P < 0.05). Governments should ensure that, through risk management protocols, the possibility of zoonotic infection transmission in fruits and vegetables is continuously monitored and controlled to reduce the risk of contamination. © 2025 Society of Chemical Industry.</p>","PeriodicalId":17725,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-05-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144016962","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Functional analysis of AcARF18 in kiwifruit resistance to Botrytis cinerea.","authors":"Zhexin Li, Yijia Ma, Yuan Sui, Jiaqi Yang, Shuai Yang, Run Xiong, Guohua Liu, Yusong Jiang","doi":"10.1002/jsfa.14345","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/jsfa.14345","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Investigating the role of AcARF18 in resistance to Botrytis cinerea in kiwifruit (Actinidia chinensis) may enrich our understanding of the disease resistance regulatory mechanisms and provide genetic resource reserves for disease resistance molecular breeding in kiwifruit.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Virus-induced gene silencing was used to investigate the functional role of AcARF18 in kiwifruit against B. cinerea. Silencing of AcARF18 (AcARF18-TRV) enhanced the resistance of kiwifruit to B. cinerea, suggesting that AcARF18 might negatively regulate kiwifruit resistance to the fungal pathogen. Physiological index analysis showed that the activity of defense enzymes, and contents of total phenols and flavonoids, and the content of indole-3-acetic acid and salicylic acid were higher in AcARF18-TRV kiwifruit than that in the control group (CK) with or without B. cinerea. RNA-seq analysis with a log₂ fold change of ≥1 and false discovery rate of <0.01 revealed 2184 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in AcARF18-TRV versus CK comparison. Of these DEGs, 1130 were upregulated and 1054 were downregulated in the silenced group. The majority of the selected DEGs were enriched in 'secondary metabolite synthesis' and 'plant hormone signal transduction' pathways.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Our results reveal the molecular mechanism by which AcARF18 regulates kiwifruit resistance to B. cinerea, and further provide genetic resources for the molecular breeding of kiwifruit to enhance its disease resistance. © 2025 Society of Chemical Industry.</p>","PeriodicalId":17725,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-05-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144026647","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Enhancing the quality of fermented sufu: synergistic effects of Staphylococcus sciuri and Bacillus toyonensis.","authors":"Ruichang Gao, Kexin Chen, Qianqian Zhang, Zhiyu Xiong, Li Yuan","doi":"10.1002/jsfa.14342","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/jsfa.14342","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Sufu, a traditional Chinese fermented soybean product, is renowned for its long history and distinctive taste. Despite its popularity, variability in quality due to conventional fermentation practices has been a persistent challenge. This study aimed to improve the quality of sufu by introducing Staphylococcus sciuri and Bacillus toyonensis, both of which were isolated from traditional Chinese fish sauce and exhibit strong protease activity.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Microbial inoculants accelerated the fermentation process and improved the sufu quality significantly, with the mixed-strain group (MF) showing the greatest improvement. After 15 days of fermentation, the protease activity of the MF group was 2.8 times that of the natural fermentation (NF) group. At 20 days of fermentation, compared with the NF group, the total volatile basic nitrogen (TVB-N) level in the MF group decreased by 33% (P < 0.05). The amino acid nitrogen (AAN) content was 1.47 times higher and the trichloroacetic acid-soluble (TCA-soluble) peptide content was 1.18 times higher (P < 0.05 in both cases). The production of key volatile flavor compounds such as 1-octen-3-ol, 4-methyl-1-pentanol, isoamyl alcohol, methyl palmitate, and 2-pentylfuran in the artificially fermented samples enhanced the overall flavor of the product. The microstructure of the inoculated samples was improved, leading to a better texture and mouthfeel in the final product.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Employing artificial inoculation with S. sciuri and B. toyonensis, especially in the MF group, significantly enhanced both the safety and quality of sufu. This study offers a theoretical basis for developing new varieties of sufu. © 2025 Society of Chemical Industry.</p>","PeriodicalId":17725,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-05-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144000335","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Molecular mechanisms of naringin's high lipid-lowering activity: pancreatic lipase inhibition and fat accumulation reduction.","authors":"Kai Yu, Wenjing Jiang, Ningning Cheng, Baorui Li, Jiao Xie, Aizhen Zong, Ye Zhang, Hao Wang","doi":"10.1002/jsfa.14336","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/jsfa.14336","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Naringin, a natural flavonoid compound, has demonstrated potential anti-obesity effects by modulating lipid metabolism. Pancreatic lipase plays a critical role in lipid digestion and absorption, making it a key target for obesity management. This study investigated the inhibitory mechanism of naringin on pancreatic lipase through in vitro, in vivo, and in silico experiments.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>In vitro experiments revealed that naringin was a competitive inhibitor of pancreatic lipase, with a half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC₅₀) of 6.93 ± 0.12 mmol/L. Multi-fluorescence spectroscopy confirmed that naringin induced secondary structure changes and static fluorescence quenching of pancreatic lipase, with a binding constant of 2.16 × 10⁴ L/mol. Isothermal titration calorimetry indicated a spontaneous exothermic reaction (-26.08 kJ/mol), mainly driven by hydrogen bonding and electrostatic force. In vivo studies demonstrated that naringin decreased serum lipase activity by 24.54%, mitigated hepatic lipid accumulation, and down-regulated inflammatory cytokines in high-fat diet-induced obese rats. Molecular simulation further revealed that hydrogen bonding was the primary interaction force between naringin and pancreatic lipase.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Naringin effectively inhibits pancreatic lipase through competitive binding and structural modifications, reducing lipid digestion and absorption. The inhibitory effect of naringin on pancreatic lipase might provide new insights into the role of naringin in lipid metabolism regulation and potential application in obesity management. © 2025 Society of Chemical Industry.</p>","PeriodicalId":17725,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-05-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144032391","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Global insights into food fraud from location-based analysis: food adulteration in Turkey.","authors":"Murat Kavruk, Tuğçe Nur Balcı, İrem Çağla Özel, Veli Cengiz Ozalp, Ali Aydın","doi":"10.1002/jsfa.14302","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/jsfa.14302","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Food fraud and adulteration pose critical global challenges impacting economic stability and public health. This study examines the prevalence and characteristics of food fraud incidents in Turkey, an international player in the food supply chain. Controls carried out from production to consumption reveal many fraudulent events worldwide.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Data collected by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Türkiye from 2012 to 2022, covering 4007 incidents and 7180 specific cases of adulteration, form the basis of this analysis. The study categorizes food fraud by region, product group and type of fraud, revealing trends and patterns. Key findings indicate a higher incidence of fraud in milk, meat and vegetable oil products, including the detection of drug-based adulteration having potential for serious health consequences.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>At most importance, we demonstrated the importance of risk-based food inspections and the development of new detection technologies to enhance food safety. The results are fundamental for more effective food inspections in terms of risk-based conformity assessment approaches or developing new methods, devices and analysis kits in terms of scientific and technological approaches. Still, they can also significantly improve future food safety measures. These insights are aimed at informing global food safety strategies and policymaking, contributing to a safer and more transparent food supply chain. © 2025 The Author(s). Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.</p>","PeriodicalId":17725,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-05-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143999809","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Feasibility assessment of a low-cost near-infrared spectroscopy-based prototype for monitoring polyphenol extraction in fermenting musts.","authors":"Gianmarco Alfieri, Riccardo Riggi, Margherita Modesti, Andrea Bellincontro, Francesco Renzi, Jose Luis Aleixandre-Tudo","doi":"10.1002/jsfa.14321","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/jsfa.14321","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>The winemaking industry increasingly relies on non-destructive techniques to support processing activities, particularly in response to climate change-induced imbalances between technological and phenolic grape maturity. Spectroscopy-based instruments have become widely available for monitoring key parameters such as total polyphenols, anthocyanins and tannins during maceration and fermentation. Near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy presents a promising solution for rapid and efficient analysis, potentially enhancing process control and decision-making in winemaking.</p><p><strong>Discussion: </strong>This study evaluates the feasibility of a low-cost NIR spectroscopy-based prototype for monitoring phenolic extraction in small-scale fermentations. The device's performance was assessed by correlating spectral data with conventional reference measurements, including total polyphenol index, tannin concentration, colour intensity, anthocyanins and polymeric pigments. Predictive models were developed using partial least squares regression and compared with those obtained from a commercial Fourier transform (FT)-NIR spectrophotometer to assess the prototype's accuracy and reliability.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>The results indicate that the low-cost NIR prototype shows potential for monitoring phenolic extraction during fermentation, providing real-time and non-destructive measurements. While its predictive performance was slightly lower than that of the commercial FT-NIR system, the prototype demonstrated promising accuracy, suggesting that with further optimization it could serve as a cost-effective alternative for wineries seeking rapid and affordable phenolic analysis. © 2025 The Author(s). Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.</p>","PeriodicalId":17725,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-05-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144020385","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Systematic comparison of the effects of exogenous inorganic selenium and organic selenium on the quality and antioxidant capacity of Pleurotus eryngii.","authors":"Fei Zhou, Mingxing Qi, Rongxin Ren, Jingyi Shi, Wanchen Zhao, Hao Wu, Gary S Bañuelos, Dongli Liang","doi":"10.1002/jsfa.14346","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/jsfa.14346","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Pleurotus eryngii is an ideal food to improve the nutritional status of selenium (Se) in the human body. Besides Se accumulation and speciation, quality parameters and antioxidant capacity are key factors in determining the nutritional value of P. eryngii. However, the effects of exogenous inorganic Se (selenite and selenate) and organic Se (Se-enriched yeast) on the quality and antioxidant capacity of Se-enriched P. eryngii remain unclear. Therefore, this substrate cultivation experiment was carried out to analyze the concentrations of nutrient elements, quality parameters and antioxidant activity of P. eryngii cultivated with different forms of Se at varying concentrations.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>All forms of exogenous Se increased crude protein content but decreased the contents of crude fiber and crude polysaccharide in P. eryngii, with the most significant promotion or inhibitory effects observed under Se-enriched yeast treatment. Compared to inorganic Se treatments, Se-enriched yeast more effectively enhanced nutrient element accumulation and antioxidant capacity of P. eryngii. The increased concentrations of zinc (Zn), magnesium (Mg), crude protein and phenolic compounds were identified as the primary factors improving the antioxidant activity of P. eryngii.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Compared to inorganic Se, Se-enriched yeast is the optimal Se source for enhancing the nutritional quality of P. eryngii, owing to its superior ability to increase crude protein content, nutrient element concentrations, and antioxidant capacity. © 2025 Society of Chemical Industry.</p>","PeriodicalId":17725,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-05-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144020513","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Influence of colla corii asini peptides on zein nanoparticle delivery of Myricetin: structure, function and antioxidant and α-glucosidase inhibition properties.","authors":"Cheng Zhang, Shuangling Zhang, Jingjun Ma, Xiaohui Wang, Min Chen, Liangtao Lv, Heping Liu, Guanyu Zhao, Junpeng Li, Nan Sun","doi":"10.1002/jsfa.14315","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/jsfa.14315","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>The limited water solubility and instability of myricetin (Myr) restrict its application in functional food. Peptides from colla corii asini (CCAP) have recognized potential for the design of hybrid nanoparticles due to their therapeutic bioactivity. In this study, a dual-protein (animal-plant hybrid) delivery system was developed by the integration of CCAP with Zein (Z), with the objective of enhancing the efficiency of Myr for diabetes management.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Size-exclusion chromatography combined with multi-angle light scattering and zeta potential revealed small- and medium-sized CCAP fragments (83.0-100.5 and 100.5-785.6 Da, 10.0% and 80.0%, respectively; degree of hydrolysis: 78.3%) enabling electrostatic interactions with Z. CCAP-Z-Myr nanoparticles (98.2 nm) exhibited enhanced encapsulation efficiency (91.4%) and thermal stability (endothermic peak shift from 71.8 °C (Z-Myr) to 138 °C (CCAP-Z-Myr)). Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction confirmed Myr amorphization (disappearance of crystalline peaks at 5.8°, 11.4°, 14.1°, 16.6°, 26.3° and 28.4°) and electrostatic interactions between CCAP and Z (CO peak shift from 1657 cm^-1 (Z) to 1633 cm^-1 (CCAP-Z), amide II from 1542 cm^-1 (Z) to 1536 cm^-1 (CCAP-Z)). Antioxidant activity of CCAP-Z-Myr surpassed that of Z-Myr (ABTS: 60.4% versus 25.3%, DPPH: 57.6% versus 33.0%, FRAP: 0.65 versus 0.42, hydroxyl radicals: 50.4% versus 30.2%, superoxide anions: 50.9% versus 29.7%). α-Glucosidase inhibitory activity of CCAP-Z-Myr was notably improved compared with Z-Myr (78.5% versus 64.8%).</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>This study demonstrated a dual animal-plant protein strategy to enhance hydrophobic bioactive Myr delivery for diabetes management, offering novel insights for functional foods and therapeutic formulations. © 2025 Society of Chemical Industry.</p>","PeriodicalId":17725,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-05-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144024536","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"YOLOv11n for precision agriculture: lightweight and efficient detection of guava defects across diverse conditions.","authors":"Madasamy Raja Ganapathy, Selvaraju Periasamy, Pathmanaban Pugazhendi, Christy Grace Manuvel Antony","doi":"10.1002/jsfa.14331","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/jsfa.14331","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Automated fruit defect detection plays a critical role in improving postharvest quality assessment and supporting decision-making in agricultural supply chains. Guava defect detection presents specific challenges because of diverse disease types, varying maturity levels and inconsistent environmental conditions. Although existing you only look once (YOLO)-based models have shown promise in agricultural detection tasks, they often face limitations in balancing detection accuracy, inference speed and computational efficiency, particularly in resource-constrained settings. This study addresses this gap by evaluating four YOLO models (YOLOv8s, YOLOv5s, YOLOv9s and YOLOv11n) for detecting defective guava fruits across five diseases (scab, canker, chilling injury, mechanical damage and rot), three maturity levels (mature, half-mature and immature) and healthy fruits.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Diverse datasets facilitated robust training and evaluation. YOLOv11n achieved the highest mAP50-95 (98.0%) and exhibited bounding box loss (0.0565), classification loss (0.2787), inference time (3.9 milliseconds) and detection speed (255 FPS). YOLOv5s had the highest precision (94.9%), while YOLOv9s excelled in recall (96.2%). YOLOv8s offered a balanced performance across metrics. YOLOv11n outperformed all models with a lightweight architecture (2.6 million parameters) and low computational cost (6.3 giga floating-point operations per second), making it suitable for resource-constrained applications.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>These results highlight YOLOv11n's potential for agricultural applications, such as automated defect detection and quality control, which require high accuracy and real-time performance across diverse conditions. This analysis provides insights into deploying YOLO models for agricultural quality assessment to enhance the efficiency and reliability of postharvest management. © 2025 Society of Chemical Industry.</p>","PeriodicalId":17725,"journal":{"name":"Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.3,"publicationDate":"2025-05-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144017377","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}