Increasing demand means Sinclair International is starting to sell the latest model of its internal-quality, bench-top firmness tester rather than renting it out selectively.
Sinclair’s iQ technology allows fruit to be tested non-destructively along the whole supply chain incurring less waste and enabling testing on large sample sizes giving more statistically accurate results.
“Every day, thousands of fruit are wasted during destructive testing, costing fresh produce packers time and money,” Sinclair marketing technologist Ian Harrison said. “The iQ bench-top unit provides an accurate, fast and non-destructive method to test fruit firmness throughout the supply chain. In figures supplied by UK packers we have found the bench top can pay for itself in a very short time through waste savings alone.”
In commercial operations, users have found that the bench top was up to four times faster than destructive instruments as fruit requires no preparation before testing.
The bench-top unit is based around the same proven sensor technology used by Sinclair in its iQ on-line system, but using a motorised tray to achieve fruit rotation. This means the fruit is tested on each quarter so an accurate overall firmness value can be calculated. “The iQ value is a direct indication of the elasticity of the fruit exactly what consumers assess when hand squeezing at the time of purchase,” said Harrison.
The iQ firmness value related well to other traditional testing methods in trials carried out at UC Davis in the US, CTIFL in France, HortResearch New Zealand and the University of Madrid in Spain.
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