Research progress on nondestructive testing technology for aquatic products freshness

Abstract As one of the vital food, aquatic products help to improve diet structure and alleviate food pressure. Aquatics food has a tender taste, with protein, polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA), and other nutrients. At the same time, aquatic products are highly susceptible to spoilage due to their properties in processing, transportation, and storage, which damages the economic efficiency of producers and may pose a threat to the dietary safety of consumers. Therefore, researchers have been working to developing an efficient, nondestructive, and practical technology to detect the freshness of aquatic products in real‐time and easily. This article describes the representative techniques applied in recent years for the nondestructive inspection of aquatic products' freshness in terms of working principles, application examples, and characteristics. It summarizes each technique's development prospects and challenges. Practical Applications In this article, the analysis of different nondestructive testing techniques in aquatic products inspection leads to several conclusions conducive to improving the effectiveness of the application. It is necessary to establish a long‐term cooperation mechanism and develop the technologies and equipment of aquatic products detection used in specific production links. New detection technologies should also be developed, with joint analysis of several detection technologies and the comprehensive characterization of multiple indicators. Finally, it leads to the establishment of an intelligent real‐time detection system for measuring aquatic products' freshness based on network and integration.