The objective of this research was to measure the spectral absorption (μa) and reduced scattering coefficients (μs') of peaches, using a hyperspectral imaging-based spatially resolved method, for maturity/quality assessment. A newly developed optical property measuring instrument was used for acquiring hyperspectral reflectance images of 500 'Redstar' peaches. The μa and μs spectra for 515 to 1,000 nm were extracted from the spatially resolved reflectance profiles using a diffusion model coupled with an inverse algorithm. The absorption spectra of peach fruit were marked with absorption peaks around 525 nm for anthocyanin, 620 nm for chlorophyll-b, 675 nm for chlorophyll-a, and 970 nm for water, while μs' decreased monotonically with the increasing wavelength for most of the tested samples. Both μa and μs' were correlated with peach firmness, soluble solids content (SSC), and skin and flesh color parameters. Better correlation results for partial least squares models were obtained using the combined values of μa and μs' (i.e., μa × μs' and μeff) than using μa or μs', where μeff is the effective attenuation coefficient: μeff = [3μa(μa + μs')]1/2. The results were further improved using least squares support vector machine models, with values of the best correlation coefficient for firmness, SSC, skin lightness, and flesh lightness being 0.749 (standard error of prediction or SEP = 17.39 N), 0.504 (SEP = 0.92 °Brix), 0.898 (SEP = 3.45), and 0.741 (SEP = 3.27), respectively. These results compared favorably to acoustic and impact firmness measurements, whose correlations with destructive measurements were 0.639 and 0.631, respectively. The hyperspectral imaging-based spatially resolved technique is useful for measuring the optical properties of peach fruit, and it has good potential for assessing fruit maturity/quality attributes. © 2012 American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers.