When
it comes to buying fruits, most of us just inspect the outer layer of
the fruit to check for mould or bruises which might indicate that the
fruit may have been damaged on its way to the market. Thanks to the
efforts of people working at sorting facilities that inspect the fruit
before they make their way to the market, most of the time we end up
with fruit that is more or less untainted.
This is accomplished through the use of ultraviolet light that
illuminates the essential oils in the rinds of rotten oranges, but this
is a slow process as the workers can only stay so long being exposed to
UV light. However now there is a way that allows machines to do the same
job automatically.
Scientists from Spain’s Valencian Institute of Agrarian Research have
created a machine that will scan the fruits using UV light, and through
image analysis techniques, it will be able to tell which fruits are bad
and which are all right. It even goes as far as sorting the fruits
according to aesthetic appeal. We’ll have to wonder if our fruits will
start getting more expensive now thanks to this new process of sorting.
