USA – Tomra Food is set to launch two sorting and grading solutions at the International Fresh Produce Association’s Global Produce & Floral Show.

The two sorters are, the Tomra Neon pre-grader for machine-harvested fresh blueberries and the new-generation Spectrim X series, which leverages Deep Learning for more precise sorting and grading.

Although automated blueberry harvesting is faster and less costly than manual harvesting, it brings unwanted debris and fruit clusters to the processing and packing lines for the fresh blueberry market, explains the company.

To tackle these challenges, Tomra Neon pre-grades machine-harvested blueberries before transferring the fruit directly onto Tomra’s KATO260 optical sorter and grader.

“Tomra Neon optimizes optical grader efficiency by removing more than 95% of clusters and more than 90% of green and red berries,” the company said in the release.

“It boasts a throughput capacity of up to 500 berries per second and can maintain a speed of up to 280 berries per second even when fruit removal is as high as 40%.”

Tomra Neon utilizes artificial intelligence to identify, differentiate, and eliminate undesirable clusters, undersized fruit, and unripe fruit, as stated in the release.

On the other hand, the new-generation Spectrim X series leverages deep learning for unparalleled sorting and grading precision.

Tomra says it continues to develop its LUCAi Deep Learning AI platform, first introduced in 2017, to expand its applications across solutions; the first of these is Spectrim X series.

Developed by a team of industry-leading scientists, engineers, researchers, and experts, the Spectrim X series brings Tomra’s extensive knowledge and collective experience in developing commodity-specific AI-powered solutions to the apple market, according to the release.

Deep-learning technology uses pre-trained models to teach computers how to process data, such as complex patterns in photos.

“Spectrim X series assesses thousands of high-resolution, multichannel fruit images every second,” the release said.

“Then it cross-references what it sees with vast amounts of data to make grading decisions to meet precise market demands.”

During 18 months of real-world testing in the U.S. and New Zealand, the Spectrim X series showed a significant leap forward in performance compared to its predecessor, the release said.

While the Spectrim X series integrates LUCAi technology, existing Spectrim customers who grade apples can enjoy the benefits with the LUCAi upgrade package, the release said.

New plug-and-play deep learning models, pre-trained on vast datasets, can accurately detect and classify even the most challenging apple defects, including splits and punctures, across multiple varieties, according to the release.

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