Sinclair International, best known for its fruit labelling systems, is making substantial progress developing its IQ Firmness Tester. It reports increasing interest from supermarkets keen to develop Ripe and Ready packs, and three machines are already operating in the UK. The machine can automatically sort a range of fruit such as avocados, mangoes, kiwifruit, peaches and nectarines. Initial trials have shown the method can be applied to plums, pears, tomatoes and papaya. Sinclair licensed the technology from avocado grower HL Hall in South Africa, and has spent 18 months developing a patented bellows which offers a flexible delivery system for collecting accurate and repeatable readings on fruit of varying size. The normal rate of throughput is 160 units a minute but the latest model is capable of 600 units and being developed for stone fruit in France. If successful it will be commercially launched later this year. {{M/E FRESH PRODUCE }}

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