Home > XI International Symposium on Kiwifruit > The Soft Fruit Sensor (SFS) – a hand-held firmness measurement device developed for the kiwifruit industry

Articles

The Soft Fruit Sensor (SFS) – a hand-held firmness measurement device developed for the kiwifruit industry

Article number

1431_44

Pages

339 – 346

Language

English

Abstract

Fruit firmness is an important quality attribute for kiwifruit, as it affects consumer acceptance, shelf life and supply chain management decisions.
Currently, there are several methods for measuring fruit firmness, but most of these are either destructive or time consuming.
The result is that firmness testing has limited deployment within the industry.
This paper presents a hand-held fruit-firmness measuring device developed for the kiwifruit industry.
The device, known as the Soft Fruit Sensor (SFS), uses a small mass to delicately tap the fruit and estimate its firmness using the resulting impact response characteristics.
The device is designed to be small, lightweight, fast (~1 s per reading) and easy to use, making it ideal for a variety of uses.
The SFS has been evaluated in a series of experiments, which we report here.
The device has the potential to be a valuable industry tool, as it can assess fruit firmness quickly and easily in the field as well as provide an objective measurement alternative for clearance testing.

Publication

XI International Symposium on Kiwifruit

Authors

S. Langdon-Arms, V.A. McGlone

Keywords

Actinidia, fruit, non-destructive, impulse-response, portable,

Full text

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2025.1431.44

Groups involved

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