Early detection of slight bruises in apples by cost-efficient near-infrared imaging

Near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy has been widely reported for its useful applications in assessing internal fruit qualities. Motivated by apple consumption in the global market, this study aims to evaluate the possibility of applying NIR imaging to detect slight bruises in apple fruits. A simple optical setup was designed, and low-cost system components were used to promote the future development of practical and cost-efficient devices. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, slight bruises were created by a mild impact with a comparably low impact energy of only 0.081 Joules. Experimental results showed that 100% of bruises in Jazz and Gala apples were accurately detected immediately after bruising and within 3 hours of storage. Thus, it is promising to develop customer devices to detect slight bruises for not only apple fruits but also other fruits with soft and thin skin at their early damage stages

Towards Autonomous Selective Harvesting: A Review of Robot Perception, Robot Design, Motion Planning and Control

This paper provides an overview of the current state-of-the-art in selective harvesting robots (SHRs) and their potential for addressing the challenges of global food production. SHRs have the potential to increase productivity, reduce labour costs, and minimise food waste by selectively harvesting only ripe fruits and vegetables. The paper discusses the main components of SHRs, including perception, grasping, cutting, motion planning, and control. It also highlights the challenges in developing SHR technologies, particularly in the areas of robot design, motion planning and control. The paper also discusses the potential benefits of integrating AI and soft robots and data-driven methods to enhance the performance and robustness of SHR systems. Finally, the paper identifies several open research questions in the field and highlights the need for further research and development efforts to advance SHR technologies to meet the challenges of global food production. Overall, this paper provides a starting point for researchers and practitioners interested in developing SHRs and highlights the need for more research in this field.Comment: Preprint: to be appeared in Journal of Field Robotic

Recent Advances in Reducing Food Losses in the Supply Chain of Fresh Agricultural Produce

Fruits and vegetables are highly nutritious agricultural produce with tremendous human health benefits. They are also highly perishable and as such are easily susceptible to spoilage, leading to a reduction in quality attributes and induced food loss. Cold chain technologies have over the years been employed to reduce the quality loss of fruits and vegetables from farm to fork. However, a high amount of losses (≈50%) still occur during the packaging, transportation, and storage of these fresh agricultural produce. This study highlights the current state-of-the-art of various advanced tools employed to reducing the quality loss of fruits and vegetables during the packaging, storage, and transportation cold chain operations, including the application of imaging technology, spectroscopy, multi-sensors, electronic nose, radio frequency identification, printed sensors, acoustic impulse response, and mathematical models. It is shown that computer vision, hyperspectral imaging, multispectral imaging, spectroscopy, X-ray imaging, and mathematical models are well established in monitoring and optimizing process parameters that affect food quality attributes during cold chain operations. We also identified the Internet of Things (IoT) and virtual representation models of a particular fresh produce (digital twins) as emerging technologies that can help monitor and control the uncharted quality evolution during its postharvest life. These advances can help diagnose and take measures against potential problems affecting the quality of fresh produce in the supply chains. Plausible future pathways to further develop these emerging technologies and help in the significant reduction of food losses in the supply chain of fresh produce are discussed. Future research should be directed towards integrating IoT and digital twins in order to intensify real-time monitoring of the cold chain environmental conditions, and the eventual optimization of the postharvest supply chains. This study gives promising insight towards the use of advanced technologies in reducing losses in the postharvest supply chain of fruits and vegetables

Advancement of non-destructive spectral measurements for the quality of major tropical fruits and vegetables: a review

The quality of tropical fruits and vegetables and the expanding global interest in eating healthy foods have resulted in the continual development of reliable, quick, and cost-effective quality assurance methods. The present review discusses the advancement of non-destructive spectral measurements for evaluating the quality of major tropical fruits and vegetables. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), Near-infrared (NIR), Raman spectroscopy, and hyperspectral imaging (HSI) were used to monitor the external and internal parameters of papaya, pineapple, avocado, mango, and banana. The ability of HSI to detect both spectral and spatial dimensions proved its efficiency in measuring external qualities such as grading 516 bananas, and defects in 10 mangoes and 10 avocados with 98.45%, 97.95%, and 99.9%, respectively. All of the techniques effectively assessed internal characteristics such as total soluble solids (TSS), soluble solid content (SSC), and moisture content (MC), with the exception of NIR, which was found to have limited penetration depth for fruits and vegetables with thick rinds or skins, including avocado, pineapple, and banana. The appropriate selection of NIR optical geometry and wavelength range can help to improve the prediction accuracy of these crops. The advancement of spectral measurements combined with machine learning and deep learning technologies have increased the efficiency of estimating the six maturity stages of papaya fruit, from the unripe to the overripe stages, with F1 scores of up to 0.90 by feature concatenation of data developed by HSI and visible light. The presented findings in the technological advancements of non-destructive spectral measurements offer promising quality assurance for tropical fruits and vegetables

Custom scanning hyperspectral imaging system for biomedical applications: modeling, benchmarking, and specifications

Prototyping hyperspectral imaging devices in current biomedical optics research requires taking into consideration various issues regarding optics, imaging, and instrumentation. In summary, an ideal imaging system should only be limited by exposure time, but there will be technological limitations (e.g., actuator delay and backlash, network delays, or embedded CPU speed) that should be considered, modeled, and optimized. This can be achieved by constructing a multiparametric model for the imaging system in question. The article describes a rotating-mirror scanning hyperspectral imaging device, its multiparametric model, as well as design and calibration protocols used to achieve its optimal performance. The main objective of the manuscript is to describe the device and review this imaging modality, while showcasing technical caveats, models and benchmarks, in an attempt to simplify and standardize specifications, as well as to incentivize prototyping similar future designs.This research, as well as APC charges, was funded by: CIBER-BBN; MINECO (Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad) and Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), grant numbers DTS15/00238, DTS17/00055, and TEC2016-76021-C2-2-R; Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Valdecilla (IDIVAL), grant number INNVAL16/02; Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports, PhD grant number FPU16/05705

Recent Innovations in Post-harvest Preservation and Protection of Agricultural Products

The global food supply chain relies on engineered systems, operational practices, and logistics to preserve, protect, process, and deliver agricultural crops along complex supply lines from farmers in low-, middle-, and high-income countries to markets around the world. Food and nutrition security is compromised by post-harvest losses (and food waste) that have been estimated to be as high as 20% in durable and 40% in perishable crops. Preserving crops using technologies and practices such as timely harvesting, evaporative cooling, cold and frozen storage, drying, and dehydrating, and protecting crops using technologies and practices such as damage-less handling, controlled and modified atmosphere storage, non-chemical heat and gas treatment, plant-derived protective films for individual fruits and vegetables, and improved packaging containers are critical to preserving nutrients, improving livelihoods, and realizing an efficient food system. This Special Issue aims to cover recent progress and innovations in science, technology, engineering, operational practices, and logistics related to post-harvest preservation and protection of durable and perishable agricultural crops. It seeks contributions that improve effectiveness, efficiency, reliability and sustainability in post-harvest handling of crops from field to end use that preserve product quality and result in foods and feeds which are nutritious and safe for human and animal consumption

Application of Analytical Chemistry to Foods and Food Technology

The application of analytical chemistry to the food sector allows the determination of the chemical composition of foods and the properties of their constituents, contributing to the definition of their nutritional and commodity value. Furthermore, it is possible to study the chemical modifications that food constituents undergo as a result of the treatments they undergo (food technology). Food analysis, therefore, allows us not only to determine the quality of a product or its nutritional value, but also to reveal adulterations and identify the presence of xenobiotic substances potentially harmful to human health. Furthermore, some foods, especially those of plant origin, contain numerous substances with beneficial effects on health. While these functional compounds can be obtained from a correct diet, they can also be extracted from food matrices for the formulation of nutraceutical products or added to foods by technological or biotechnological means for the production of functional foods. On the other hand, the enormous growth of the food industry over the last 50 years has broadened the field of application of analytical chemistry to encompass not only food but also food technology, which is fundamental for increasing the production of all types of food