One of the most important stages in preparing fruit and vegetables for sale is optical sorting. High-quality sorting is the possibility to get sorted product by various characteristics: weight, size, color, diameter, quality, etc. It ensures that final packaged product will meet the requirements for further sale or processing. SEEDS.org.ua wrote.
The characteristics of raw products are very important, and sometimes even crucial in the mechanization of vegetables and fruit processing. The products for the fresh market are subject to post harvest handling – for instance, optical sorting for fresh blueberries or cherries, which helps to extend the shelf life of product and get sorted by quality product of certain grades.
Experts say that sorting and packaging are necessary terms for export-oriented production. According to Natalia Zelenska, business development manager at Tolsma Technik, such a popular berry as blueberry is now exported to Asian countries only when sorted and packaged.
Ukrainian retailers also prefer to have sorted and packaged berries on their shelves.
“This is absolutely reasonable – fresh berries with not very long shelf life could spoil being in bulk much faster, especially if the product has not been sorted by quality – a rotten or soft berry can spoil surrounding berries,” Natalia Zelenska notes.
The Cherry Class and the Berry Class sorting machines from Elifab Solutions offered by Tolsma Technik are very compact, occupying the smallest possible space in the packing house compared to other machines and significantly reducing the cost of cooling the premises and maintaining the temperature in it.
The sorting machines are equipped with a highly sensitive optical system (color and infrared cameras) and software – the TrueSort ™ technology developed by Ellips. These are the machines with the most delicate treatment of berries, blueberry keeps it’s natural bloom, for example.
The Berry Class sorting machine can sort blueberry by any defects: soft, unripe, damaged, dehydrated, rotten berries, berries with a stem, a flower, etc., and berries of a certain hardness and caliber are sent to the corresponding exit for further packing.
Moreover, the machine detects both internal and external quality of the berry. First of all, soft berries are eliminated – they will spoil in a few days when transported across Ukraine, not to mention if such berries are sent for export.
These are not the only defects the machine can detect and sort out. It is also easy to add and program any new berry defect for further sorting.
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