Lindcove REC hosted a citrus tasting event and tour of the facility in mid-December. Included in the tour was the Compac and Taste Tech fruit grading system on the packline, which allows a large amount of citrus to be graded and evaluated quickly and very accurately. This is very important for researchers, who want to know how the treatments applied in the field studies have affected fruit number and fruit quality.

Fruit is unloaded one tree at a time onto the line and each piece of fruit passes through three sets of light systems, is photographed by multiple cameras that collect data and is weighed. The cameras takes 30 pictures of each piece of fruit as it rotates along the belt, and the data output reports each of ten colors as a percentage of the total fruit surface area, as well fruit width and length, weight and size. Taste Tech’s Near Infrared technology can measure Brix (providing a sugar/acid ratio) and internal problems such as granulation. Experiments are underway to determine if the near infrared system can differentiate freeze damaged fruit from undamaged fruit – which would be extremely helpful in a year such as this when packinghouses are struggling to sort out damaged fruit.

Compac and Taste Tec have been providing technical support to Lindcove and working with Lindcove researchers and staff to make improvements in the software modeling. This kind of collaboration is typical of the kinds of partnerships that can flourish at the Research and Extension Centers to help improve our food and how it is delivered.