FAQ: Can I use CIELAB and D65 or F2 to report a/b ratio for my Tomato Tile and tomato products?

Answer:

The Illuminant/Observer combination can have a significant effect on the results. Historically and currently all three types of Tomato tiles: USDA UC Davis, BCR400, HunterLab Tomato use Hunter L,a,b, with Illuminant/Observer C/2. If you use CIELAB L,a,b* or any other illuminant/observer combination such as D65/10 or F2, F7, F11 then the numbers can vary greatly. I would hope that they are not just trying different illuminant/observer combinations until they get numbers that they like.

We have one customer who orders the new HunterLab Tomato tile and requests that we use CIELAB C/2 on the label, which is not the normal convention, and may cause confusion if compared to the Hunter L,a,b C/2 a/b ratio.

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