Avocado, mango and kiwifruit packing centres are making increasing use of Sinclair’s portable iQ Benchtop system.
The device is being used more and more as a replacement for traditional destructive tests such as the penetrometer, and can also be used to segregate fruit into firmness bands for “ripe and ready” product lines and to extract over-soft fruit altogether.
A typical avocado packer carries out several stringent quality tests, in order to maintain rigorous quality specifications. Fruit is tested for firmness on intake, but by the time the pallet is dispatched up to five per cent of the fruit could be destroyed. This can add up to a loss of fruit worth $150,000 (£91,500) per year. A Sinclair iQ Benchtop costs around $7,500, offering value for money.
Fruit is also tested for other criteria such as oil or sugar content, but firmness remains a key factor; non-destructive sampling can greatly assist cost reduction.
The Sinclair uni (fully portable) also offers significant time savings and enhanced data capture and storage.
The same iQ technology is also available from Sinclair in an on-line format, mounted over a moving conveyor, for automated firmness product sorting.
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