Automation on fruit and vegetable grading system and food traceability

In recent ten years, operations in grading systems for fruits and vegetables became highly automated with mechatronics, and robotics technologies. Especially, machine vision systems and near infrared inspection systems have been introduced to many grading facilities with mechanisms for inspecting all sides of fruits and vegetables. In this paper, automation technologies of several types of fruit and vegetable grading systems are described, while their potentials to give producers and consumers product information are discussed from a view point of food traceability.