Firmness has become an important quality factor for the fresh apple market. Apple grading standards were amended in 1992 to include minimum firmness standards. Consumer research also shows that the consumers want crisp and good quality apples and are not too concerned about the color as they used to. Currently soft apples cannot be removed except by hand sorting and it causes huge economic loss to the packer and grower because under current standards any lot with over 10% soft apples is rejected. Several research projects have been directed toward developing sensors or mechanisms to measure apple firmness. However, the existing approaches and research results have shown significant drawbacks. The slow processing speed and/or high cost have prevented them from being used on an apple packing line. The proposed research is focused on demonstrating the feasibility of using machine vision technology with the off-the-shelf electronics and optical components to achieve on-line nondestructive firmness evaluation on an existing apple packing line at an affordable cost.
Anticipated Results/Potential Commercial Applications of Research: A nondestructive firmness inspection system integrated into an existing packing line could identify soft apples and minimize the number of firm apples rejected as being soft. Successful development of this new process could save the U.S. apple industry millions of dollars per year and ensure consistent fruit quality for consumers. This new process would also provide the basis for developing firmness evaluation systems for other tree fruit industries.
