External Defects and Soil Deposits Identification on Potato Tubers using 2CCD Camera and Principal Component Images

Precise recognition of potato external defects and the ability to identify defects and non-defect areas are in demand. Common scab represents a significant issue that requires detection, yet identifying the extent of common scab infection remains challenging when using a standard RGB camera. In this research, a 2CCD camera system that could obtain a set of RGB and near-infrared images, which could enhance defect detection, has been used. Image segmentation strategies based on a single principal component image and the principal component pseudo-colored image have been proposed to identify external potato defects while excluding soil deposits on the potato surface, often recognized as defects by the normal color machine vision system. Performance metrics calculation results show relatively good results, with segmentation true accuracy around 64% for both methods. Principal component pseudo-colored images were able to discriminate defects area and soil deposits in a single image. The methods presented in this paper could be used as the basis to develop further classification and grading algorithms

The non-invasive assessment of avocado maturity and quality

Horticultural products in today's modern market must have high quality standards. Consumer demand for consistent quality agricultural produce remains strong and continues to increase, this will lead to the development and subsequent increased availability of sophisticated techniques, sensors, and user-friendly non-invasive systems for measuring product quality indices. The inability to consistently guarantee internal fruit quality is a major factor not only for the Australian avocado industry but also the entire horticulture sector. Poor fruit quality is seen as a key factor affecting consumer confidence and impacts on supply chain efficiency and profitability. Removing fruit quality inconsistencies while providing the consumer with a consistent quality product is a vital commercial consideration of the Australian avocado industry for both domestic and export markets. Many fruit quality attributes affecting consumer acceptance are assessed using traditional methods that are generally subjective, labour intensive and costly. Commercially, avocado maturity is measured destructively by the determination of dry matter (DM) content, moisture content (MC) or oil content, all of which are highly correlated. Maturity is an important component in avocado fruit quality and a prime factor in palatability. A rapid, non-destructive measurement system that can accurately and simultaneously monitor external and internal attributes of every avocado fruit either in the field or in an in-line setting, is highly desirable for ensuring consistent product quality over an extended season, increasing industry marketability and profitability. The utility of near infrared (NIR) spectroscopy was investigated as a non-invasive assessment tool for estimating avocado maturity and thereby eating quality based on dry matter content of whole intact fruit primarily for the avocado variety 'Hass'. The technique was also assessed for detecting bruises and for predicting rot susceptibility as an indication of shelf-life for possible implementation in a commercial in-line application. The project also investigated the importance of the calibration model development process to incorporate seasonal and geographical variability to ensure model robustness. NIR spectroscopy has an obvious place in agriculture and environmental applications with its core strength in the analysis of biological materials, plus low cost of analysis, simplicity in sample preparation, no chemical reagent requirements, simultaneous analysis of multiple constituents, good repeatability and high throughput capability. The commercially available NIR spectroscopy systems assessed in this project highlighted the potential of NIR spectroscopy and its suitability for application in a commercial in-line setting for predicting avocado maturity and palatability of whole intact avocados, based on DM content. With horticultural products, the major challenge of implementing NIR spectroscopy is to ensure that the calibration model is robust, that is, that the calibration model holds across growing seasons and potentially across growing districts. The present project represents the first study to investigate the effect of seasonal variation on model robustness to be applied to avocado fruit. It found that seasonal variability has a significant effect on model predictive performance for DM in avocados. The robustness of the calibration model, which in general limits the commercial application for the technique, was found to increase across seasons when more seasonal variability was included in the calibration set. Across the seasons it achieved predictive performances in this case in the range of: validation coefficient of determination (Rᵥ²) of 0.76 – 0.89, root mean square error of prediction (RMSEP) of 1.43 - 1.97%, and standard deviation ratio's (SDR) of 2.0 to 3.1. Similarly, there are spectral differences between geographical regions and that specific regional models may have significantly reduced predictive performance when applied to samples containing biological variability from a different growing region. As with seasonal variability, this can be addressed by incorporating multiple geographical growing regions into the calibration model to account for the biological variability to improve model robustness as demonstrated in this study (i.e., Rᵥ² of 0.89, RMSEP of 1.51%, and SDR of 3.6). Furthermore, when models are constructed to include both season and geographical variability, model performance can be more robust when dealing with a broader range of future sample variability. This was demonstrated with calibration models constructed to incorporate 3 years of seasonal variability and encompassing 3 geographical regions, obtaining predictive performances ranging from Rᵥ ² 0.87 - 0.89; RMSEP of 1.42 - 1.64% and SDR of 2.7 - 3.1 across the various geographical regions. NIR spectroscopy shows great promise for the application in a commercial, in-line setting for the non-destructive evaluation of impact damage (bruising) and rot susceptibility of whole avocado fruit, although optimisation of the technology is required to address speed of throughput and environmental issues. The adoption of a rapid, non-invasive method to identify fruit that are less prone to rots and internal disorders would allow selection of fruit that could be sent to more distant markets with greater confidence that it will arrive in acceptable quality, thus ensuring maximum yield and higher returns for the producer and marketer. The ability of the NIR classification models to accurately predict rot development of hard green avocado fruit (stage 0 ripeness) into two classes, ≤10% and >10% of flesh affected, ranged from 65-84% over the three growing seasons. When the rot classes were defined as ≤30% and >30% the accuracy ranged from 69%-77%. In relation to impact damage (bruising), trials conducted over three growing seasons using an NIR spot assessment technique found hard green fruit at stage 2 ripeness, that were deliberately bruised could be correctly detected with 70-79% accuracy after 2-5 hours of impacting and with 83-89% accuracy after 24 hours. For eating ripe (stage 4) fruit, the accuracy was 60-100% after 2-5 hours of impacting and 66-100% after 24 hours across the three growing seasons. This indicates that in a commercial situation it would be an advantage to hold the fruit for 24 hours before undertaking NIR scanning

September 24, 1998

The Breeze is the student newspaper of James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia

New Multidisciplinary Approaches for Reducing Food Waste in Agribusiness Supply Chains

This reprint is a collection of research articles that highlight the achievements of the team of the European project called REAMIT. REAMIT was funded by Interreg North-West Europe and ERDF. The term REAMIT stands for “Improving Resource Efficiency of Agribusiness supply chains by Minimising waste using Big Data and Internet of Things sensors.” The main aim of the REAMIT project was to reduce food waste in agrifood supply chains by using the power of modern, digital technologies (e.g., the Internet of Things (IoT), sensors, big data, cloud computing and analytics). The chapters in this reprint provide detailed information of the activities of the project team.The chapters of this reprint were published as articles in the Special Issue titled ”New Multidisciplinary Approaches for Reducing Food Waste in Agribusiness Supply Chains” published in the journal Sustainability. For ease of readability and flow, the book is divided into four distinct parts.In Part 1, the project members provided a comprehensive review of the existing literature. Part 2 is devoted to the in-depth discussions of the development, adaptation, and applications of these technologies for specific food companies. While the project team worked with a number of food companies including human milk, fresh vegetables and fruits, meat production, this part discusses four different applications.Part 3 presents a detailed analysis of our case studies. A general life-cycle analysis tool for implementing technology for reducing food waste (REAMIT-type activities) is presented in Chapter 7. A specific application of this tool for the case study on a human milk bank is presented in Chapter 8. In Chapter 9, we developed a novel mathematical programming model to identify the conditions when food businesses will prefer the use of modern technologies for helping to reduce food waste.The final part, Part 4, is devoted to summarising learnings from the project and developing some policy-oriented guidelines. Chapter 10 reviews the current state of corporate reporting guidelines for reporting on food waste. Chapter 11 presents the important leanings from the REAMIT project on the motivations for food companies in reducing waste and the associated challenges. Business models are discussed, and some policy guidelines were developed.We gratefully acknowledge the generous funding received from the Interreg North-West Europe for carrying out our activities. The content of Chapter 10 was funded additional funding received from the University of Essex. We believe that the reprint and individual chapters will be of interest to a wide and various audience and will kindle interest in food companies, technology companies, business support organisations, policy-makers and members of the academic community in finding ways to reduce food waste with and without the use of technology

Estrategias dirigidas a retrasar el pardeamiento enzimático en productos destinados a la IV gama: alcachofas y patatas

La IV Gama de productos hortofrutícolas ofrece alimentos naturales, frescos, de alto valor nutricional y fáciles de preparar. Todas estas características han favorecido el crecimiento que en los últimos años ha experimentado el sector, al haberse adaptado a las necesidades de la sociedad actual, caracterizada por un ritmo de vida que impone recurrir a comidas rápidas y fáciles de elaborar, sin renunciar a una alimentación sana. Esta situación ha motivado que se hayan dedicado esfuerzos y recursos al desarrollo de nuevos productos lavados, cortados y preparados en fresco, listos para su consumo en crudo o cocinado. En la actualidad existen gran variedad de hortalizas frescas cortadas siendo las ensaladas las más consumidas. Sin embargo, el mercado carece de algunos productos como es el caso de la alcachofa y de la patata, que teniendo importantes cualidades nutritivas y culinarias y, un papel importante dentro de la dieta mediterránea, requieren tediosas operaciones para su preparación; siendo además productos con importantes problemas de pérdida de calidad debido a su sensibilidad al pardeamiento. El objetivo principal de esta Tesis Doctoral ha sido el desarrollo y evaluación de estrategias destinadas a retrasar el pardeamiento enzimático de alcachofa y patata. Todos los ensayos han sido realizados utilizando la misma forma de presentación. Así, la alcachofa presentada en cuartos mientras que la patata se analizó en cubos de 1 cm3. Las estrategias abordadas se centraron inicialmente en la búsqueda de variedades de alcachofa y patata idóneas para el procesado IV Gama, evaluando tanto su respuesta al pardeamiento a través de parámetros de apariencia visual (medida de parámetros de color y valoración mediante escalas), como su calidad nutricional a través de parámetros de calidad interna (medidas de actividad enzimática, contenido en fenoles, contenido en vitamina C y actividad antioxidante). Una vez seleccionadas las variedades de patata y alcachofa más idóneas para el procesado como IV Gama, se estudiaron y evaluaron distintos agentes antioxidantes...Fresh-cut products can be considered as natural and fresh foods with high nutritional value and easy to prepare. These characteristics have contributed to the growth of the fresh-cut market in the last decades, since minimally processed foods are successfully adapted to the requirements of the current society in terms of quality and safety. This situation has led to increasing efforts and resources devoted to the development of new fresh-cut products. Nowadays, there are many kinds of vegetables in the fresh-cut products market although salads, in various types and forms, are the most consumed. However, so far the fresh-cut produce market lacks products like artichokes or potato, which, with their high nutritional values and culinary attributes, play an important role in the standards of the Mediterranean diet. In addition these products require tedious operations for their preparation which make them the more convenient as a ready-to-use product; on the other hand they have substantial quality loss problems due to their high susceptibility to browning after cutting. The main objective of this PhD Thesis was the development and evaluation of strategies to delay browning in fresh-cut artichoke and potato. Trials were performed always using the same product shape: artichokes were cut in quarters whereas potatoes where cut in cubes of about 1 cm3. Initially, strategies were focused on the screening of cultivars suitable for freshcut processing. The response to post-cutting browning was evaluated in term of visual appearance (colour measurement and appearance evaluation), enzyme activity, and nutritional quality (phenolic content, vitamin C content and antioxidant activity). After screening the most suitable cultivars for minimally processing, assays were performed in order to assess the capacity of different antioxidant agents available for the inhibition of browning during shelf-life in fresh-cut artichoke and potato. The goal in these tests was to evaluate the response of plant material to different antioxidant treatments focusing on relative changes of the attributes of colour and appearance..

Root, Tuber and Banana Food System Innovations

This open access book describes recent innovations in food systems based on root, tuber and banana crops in developing countries. These innovations respond to many of the challenges facing these vital crops, linked to their vegetative seed and bulky and perishable produce. The innovations create value, food, jobs and new sources of income while improving the wellbeing and quality of life of their users. Women are often key players in the production, processing and marketing of roots, tubers and bananas, so successful innovation needs to consider gender. These crops and their value chains have long been neglected by research and development, hence this book contributes to filling in the gap. The book features many outcomes of the CGIAR Research Program in Roots, Tubers and Banana (RTB), which operated from 2012-21, encompassing many tropical countries, academic and industry partners, multiple crops, and major initiatives. It describes the successful innovation model developed by RTB that brings together diverse partners and organizations, to create value for the end users and to generate positive economic and social outcomes. RTB has accelerated the scaling of innovations to reach many end users cost effectively. Though most of the book’s examples and insights are from Africa, they can be applied worldwide. The book will be useful for decision makers designing policies to scale up agricultural solutions, for researchers and extension specialists seeking practical ideas, and for scholars of innovation