Brian Hills at the Institute of Food Research in Norwich has seen the light. He believes that Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) can be the future of maturity testing for the fresh produce industry.

The theoretical physicist is two years into a research and development project - 50 per cent funded by Defra - that aims to produce an MRI scanner for the fresh produce industry that replicates the performance of the MRI machinery so successfully used in the medical sector.

“I asked myself why there is no NMR technology used in the fresh produce industry,” said Hills. “Near Infra-red (NIR) technology has been developed and is used. But the market potential for NMR in the fruit and vegetable quality sector is enormous, for foreign body detection, internal maturity analysis and control in processing.”

The vision is that an MRI sensor, which uses NMR technology, wrapped around a conveyor belt, can scan a product passing through for internal defects, degree of ripeness etc. But conventional MRI is too expensive. A whole body scanner costs a hospital upwards of £1 million, “no packhouse is going to pay that and all the components of the conventional MRI scanner are extremely expensive,” said Hills.

He has instead concentrated on developing a low-cost MRI option and he is now showcasing his results to date. Five food companies, including Orchard House Foods which is trialling the Hills prototype on oranges for processing, are already assisting with the project, as is machinery and labelling specialist Sinclair International, says Hills.

After assessing a number of options for furthering his revolutionary concept, Hills found that conventional imaging techniques were not necessarily the way forward and has developed a prototype based on the motional relativity principle, which sees a conveyor belt of fruit moving through a static-sensor assembly.

“So far we have only achieved one dimensional imagery, but the feasibility has been proved,” said Hills. “This is embryonic, future technology, but it will be commercially available within the next few years.”

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