<p>Today, extensive research has been conducted in the field of quality assessment of agricultural products. Fruits, due to their high production and consumption worldwide, have played a significant role in these studies. In this article, we will discuss fruit texture and the fruit firmness detection system at Romak.</p>
<p>Fruit Texture Firmness Detection System at Romak</p>
<p>Today, extensive research has been conducted in the field of quality assessment of agricultural products. Fruits, due to their high production and consumption worldwide, have played a significant role in these studies. In this article, we will discuss fruit texture and the fruit firmness detection system at Romak.</p>
<p>Texture testing is a technique with a long history that has been used to measure the mechanical and physical properties of raw materials, the structure of food products, and for initial and final quality control. Texture testing is applied across a wide range of food products, including baked goods, grains, confectionery, snacks, dairy products, fruits, vegetables, gelatin products, meat, poultry, fish, pasta, and even animal feed. Since texture is a property related to the sense of touch, it can be easily measured mechanically in units such as force.</p>
<p>This article discusses non-destructive instrumental research on evaluating the firmness of apple fruit. These studies can be used to examine texture quality, predict the optimal harvesting time, classify fruits based on ripeness, and detect external and internal defects. Methods for measuring apple flesh firmness include acoustic and mechanical vibration methods, optical methods such as hyperspectral imaging, near-infrared spectroscopy, ultrasound, and other techniques.</p>
<p>The destructive puncture test is commonly used as a reference method. Non-destructive methods are accurate, fast, and suitable for online applications. With its fruit firmness detection system, Romak can provide high-quality products to the market.</p>
<h2>Apple Firmness Quality Assessment</h2>
<p>Apples are grown in many countries, and global production exceeded 86 million tons in 2018. They are well adapted to regions where winter temperatures are close to freezing. The harvesting time of apples is important for storage, as early harvesting affects flavor, color, size, and storage ability, while late harvesting causes softening and reduces shelf life. Pressure testing is used to measure firmness and determine the appropriate harvest date. Today, fruit quality is one of the main concerns of consumers, and quality evaluation is a critical issue in post-harvest transportation.</p>
<p>Texture, along with appearance, flavor, and nutritional properties, is one of the main quality indicators of fresh and processed agricultural products. It is also a key indicator for evaluating quality and determining the maturity of agricultural products. Knowledge of agricultural product properties is important for all stakeholders in the production chain, including producers, post-harvest operators, processors, sellers, consumers, wholesalers, retailers, and agricultural insurance representatives.</p>
<p>For fresh foods such as fruits and vegetables, texture characteristics are widely used as criteria for transportation, storage, and consumer acceptance. In apples, texture characteristics include crispness, juiciness, hardness, and firmness. Flavor and appearance also appear to be dominant quality characteristics. These properties are essential for increasing the value of fruits. Non-destructive methods for evaluating the internal quality of agricultural products can be used for online applications. The fruit firmness detection system at Romak delivers the highest-quality fruits to customers.</p>
<h2>Firmness</h2>
<p>Firmness is one of the most important texture characteristics for determining product quality. Freshness and crispness play a significant role in customers&rsquo; apple selection. In addition, firmness is directly related to apple juiciness and freshness. Fruit firmness is a more important indicator than sugar and acid content. Firmness is one of the parameters used in calculating the Starch Index.</p>
<h2>Starch Index (SI)</h2>
<p>The Starch Index (SI) is used to determine the optimal harvest time for apples. Apple flesh firmness can be measured using various techniques that can be applied in grading and sorting chains. These techniques include non-destructive acoustic impact response, micro-deformation, vibration measurement, near-infrared spectroscopy (NIR), ultrasonic wave emission, imaging analysis, and time-resolved spectroscopy (TRS). This review discusses the potential and effectiveness of these techniques for evaluating apple fruit quality characteristics.</p>
<p>Food waste worldwide accounts for 25 to 33 percent, with fruits making up a significant portion of this amount. The global population is expected to reach 11.2 billion by 2100. With rapid population growth and increasing demand for healthy and safe food, food losses and waste are also increasing and must be controlled and reduced for sustainable development. To reduce agricultural product losses and waste, quality assessment using fast and effective methods can help minimize losses and improve planning and decision-making in fruit processing and distribution management. The fruit firmness detection system is one of the advanced facilities of Romak Gostar, which will be discussed further.</p>
<p>Non-destructive technologies used for evaluating apple firmness are divided into three categories:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Acoustic vibration methods</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Optical methods</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Electrical resistance and capacitance methods</p>
</li>
</ul>
<h2>Several Good Review Articles on Fruit Quality Assessment</h2>
<p>Abbott et al. (1997) presented techniques for estimating and measuring various properties of fruits and vegetables, including density, mechanical, electromagnetic, and electrochemical properties. This article can serve as a useful reference for methods used to measure fruit and vegetable characteristics.</p>
<p>Garcia et al. (2005) reviewed non-destructive fruit firmness sensors. According to their classification, firmness estimation methods include measurements based on force-deformation curves, impact force analysis, acoustic responses to vibration and impact, rebound techniques, NMR methods, and optical property measurements.</p>
<p>Harker et al. (2010) described fundamental knowledge of fruit texture. They explained texture perception, measurement methods, influencing factors, and disorders affecting fruit texture in detail.</p>
<h2>Firmness and Other Properties</h2>
<p>Various indicators such as apple appearance and size, total soluble solids (TSS), acid content, starch, flesh firmness, flesh color, skin color, background color, water core, and internal ethylene concentration are used to determine fruit maturity. However, firmness is one of the most important factors in determining harvest time. Firmness and other fruit and vegetable properties are interconnected. For example, flesh firmness is directly related to freshness and maturity, while softness has an opposite relationship.</p>
<p>Loss of firmness is closely related to reduced fruit water content and is one of the most important changes during long-term cold storage. Apple firmness is also related to the rheological properties of its skin and flesh. Post-harvest softening of apples is a major challenge for growers and storage operators. Firmness loss occurs due to factors such as fruit anatomy, cellular structure, cell wall and membrane changes, cell turgor changes, and the role of ethylene and other growth regulators. One of the indicators for evaluating apple texture quality is the Starch Index.</p>
<h2>Sensory and Instrumental Quality Assessment</h2>
<p>Firmness measurement can be performed using two methods: sensory and instrumental. While all sensory methods are destructive, some instrumental methods are non-destructive. The implementation of non-destructive methods allows researchers to monitor firmness changes during growth, maturity, and post-harvest ripening.</p>
<p>Therefore, using reliable and accurate methods to replace sensory techniques is essential. Harker et al. studied the impact of memory on consumer judgment of quality. They examined participants' ability to distinguish differences in apple texture. Each day, participants were provided with an apple at one-minute intervals, where each apple differed in firmness from the previous one by 0, 5, 10, or 15 Newtons.</p>
<p>Oraguzie et al. (2009) evaluated apple quality characteristics, including firmness, acidity, sweetness, juiciness, and crispness, using both instruments and expert panels. Their research examined different sources of expert perception errors to improve post-harvest fruit quality evaluation. The correlation between expert evaluation and average instrumental flesh firmness was 73.5%. Charles et al. (2017) studied apple texture characteristics based on altitude and harvest time using sensory-instrumental methods.</p>
<h2>Non-Destructive Measurement Methods</h2>
<p>Non-destructive methods and advanced systems for detecting fruit texture firmness are used to measure specific properties and components of materials without damaging or altering their structure and function. The advantage of non-destructive methods is that, unlike traditional destructive methods, the tested material remains intact and available. Non-destructive testing aims to replace older techniques.</p>
<h2>Acoustic, Vibration, and Mechanical Methods</h2>
<p>Acoustic emission is an important indicator for evaluating the texture quality of food products. Therefore, the acoustic properties of both snack and fresh food products are important. Acoustic methods can also be used to calculate the elasticity coefficient related to Young&rsquo;s modulus. The use of acoustic emission methods for evaluating food quality is divided into destructive and non-destructive approaches.</p>
<p>Chewing sound analysis, compression tests, and puncture tests are among destructive methods. In non-destructive tests and fruit firmness detection systems, samples are usually stimulated through impact or force modules. Then, contact or non-contact modules receive the signal and transfer it to the signal processing unit. Since firmness is one of the main texture properties of fruits and is related to juiciness and crispness, this section focuses on texture characteristics. Chen et al. (1992) monitored post-harvest changes in apple texture quality using acoustic impact response techniques.</p>
<h2>Optical Methods</h2>
<p>Some methods for measuring firmness and other texture characteristics of agricultural products are based on optical techniques. For example, Xueming et al. evaluated pear firmness based on absorption and scattering characteristics using an automated integrating sphere system.</p>
<h2>Electrical Resistance and Capacitance Measurement</h2>
<p>The electrical capacitance properties of fruits are commonly used to measure volume, density, or moisture content in agricultural products. Massah et al. applied electrical resistance methods to evaluate post-harvest apple quality. This method can also be used to measure fruit firmness. Bhosale and Sundaram proposed a non-destructive method for predicting apple firmness using electrical capacitance measurements. Acoustic firmness measurement was used as a reference. They performed this using non-contact parallel plates.</p>
<h2>What is AFS (Romak Fruit Firmness Detection System)?</h2>
<p>Romak exports more than 15 types of fruits. Our main goal is to export products without any damage to their texture. AFS is a fruit firmness detection system that measures the internal condition and firmness of fruits without damaging their texture.</p>
<p>Romak Gostar Pars Company provides various facilities for product preparation, including preparation and packaging halls, ripening rooms, freezing tunnels, laboratories, and other one-stop commercial services. To view Romak&rsquo;s fruit firmness detection system and advanced equipment, visit our About Us page.</p>
<p>Thank you for accompanying us throughout this article.</p>

Today, extensive research is being conducted on the quality assessment of agricultural products. Fruits, due to their high production and consumption worldwide, have played a significant role in these studies. In the following, we will discuss fruit texture and the fruit firmness detection system at Romak. Texture analysis is a technique...


Romak’s fruit texture firmness detection system uses non-destructive technologies to evaluate the internal quality and firmness of fruits without causing damage. Romak is a leader in quality control of Iran’s export fruits.


Romak Fruit Texture Firmness Detection System

Romak Fruit Texture Firmness Detection System

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