Korean Developer Of Non-Invasive Spectroscopy Technology SunForest Creates A Smaller And More Portable Field Spectrometer For Easier Field Readings

by Czarelli Tuason / Oct 07, 2015 12:37 AM EDT

Spectrometer being used on a fruit (Photo by SunForest)

Fresh Plaza reported on Monday that SunForest, South Korea's developer of non-invasive spectroscopy technology and pioneer in Nondestructive Fruit Quality Testing solution, is developing a new collection of handheld field spectrometer, which will be called the P100 line.

The new line, which will be available next year, is smaller and more portable compared to their H100 line that reads the quality of fruits and vegetables, including their sugars, minerals and trace minerals.

"Traditionally, spectrometers have been big, expensive and not easy to handle in the field," said director of SunForest Jay Hwang. "We developed a device that makes it easy to carry the spectrometer into the field, into the packing house and throughout the supply chain."

According to Bionutrient Food Association on their webpage, the Brix scale is based on the amount of light-bending as it passes through a liquid. It is used to identify the quality of fruits and vegetables by measuring the percent solids (TSS) in a certain weight of produce juice.

The H100 field spectrometer line of SunForest enabled farmers and growers to read the brix levels without causing damage to the fruit. The P100 line aims to be more efficient and more portable than the previous line.

"The P100 is a miniaturized reader that is much easier to handle than the H100," pointed Hwang. "We were able to make it smaller by integrating it with a smartphone. With this product, you can now read brix levels of small fruit like cherries, grapes and cherry tomatoes. For larger fruit, like apples, you can use the H100 series."

"We had to combine knowledge of optics, electronics and agriculture into this product," Hwang added. "We also had to go through extensive testing, with which we were helped by the Government Agricultural Institute, with many different samples in different environments. But now we have a product that will appeal greatly to people who are interested in quality control."

After the release of P100 field spectrometer line of SunForest in South Korea next year, the device will be made available in Europe and the U.S.