University of Georgia: Technology to prevent damage to blueberries
A group of researchers from the University of Georgia have won a $ 1 million 2,37 scholarship awarded by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to develop a technology that will help medium-sized blueberry growers.
During the harvesting process, a lot of blueberries are crushed. The machines do everything they can, but often leave something to be desired.
«The quality is not very good“says Changying “Charlie” Li. «Normally they can not be sold as fresh fruit or in a grocery store or supermarket«.
Thus, damaged blueberries are relegated to become processed foods, such as blueberry muffins.
Li is an associate professor in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Georgia. He runs a national project with ten universities to build a semi-mechanical harvester that is careful with blueberries.
For this, he has developed a device that measures the impacts on berries. It is a small sphere with an electronic chip.
This device travels with other blueberries to measure all the damage they are subjected to during their journey in a packing plant. Expect the prototype to be ready by the end of this year.
The other participating universities are also located in important blueberry producing states. Among them, the University of Florida, Michigan State University, Mississippi State University, North Carolina State University, Oregon State University and the Pennsylvania State University.
Source: Wabe.org
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