What is fruit sorting

Fruit grading is generally according to the index system composed of multiple indicators to grade the fruit, such as real size, fruit freshness, fruit stem length, peel color, disease and insect infestation. Not long ago, the State Administration for Market Regulation issued a number of national standards, of which the "Guidelines for Fruit Quality Classification" is the state's provisions and requirements for fruit quality classification.

Fruit grading is an important link in the chain of fruit transformation from product to commodity. But for farmers with limited production scale, it is not realistic to mechanical sorting immediately after picking. Even if there is such a thing as fruit grading, it may be done by traditional hand sorting. The criteria are very simple and the sorting is inefficient.

Why are we grading

Fruit has the congenital defects of fresh agricultural products - very easy to rot. Due to various reasons such as possible technology, weather, soil, fertilizer, diseases and so on during planting, the fruits in the same farm may be very different, some fruits are beautiful and colorful, and some products are different and carry germs.

On the one hand, the fruit can be divided into grades according to different qualities, sold in the form of high quality and high price, low quality and low price, and the quality and price of fruit are framed in a range from the source. In this way, at the end of the fruit sales market, consumers can also gradually be guided to pay for quality and promote a virtuous cycle in the industry.

For example, Spain is one of the major producers of oranges, and its orange industry has always been known for its high quality and precision management. Still, during the orange picking season, farmers grade oranges according to strict criteria.

Only those oranges that meet the highest standards, such as western sweet oranges with bright color, full fruit and unique taste, can be recognized as top products. These top-quality oranges are usually sold at a premium price and can cost 1 euro or more each.

On the other hand, the loss of fruit is directly reflected in the deterioration. The important cause of fruit decay is the disease of fruit caused by the infection of pathogenic microorganisms, that is, "infectious diseases". The main culprits of this result are pathogenic bacteria and saprophytic bacteria. Preharvest field disease, postharvest mechanical damage, improper management of storage humidity and temperature conditions will lead to infection.

The key is that due to the divergence and fluidity of the spores of pathogenic bacteria, the fruits that produce infectious diseases are easy to "infect" other good fruits, resulting in a large area of spoilage, resulting in obvious uncontrollable economic losses.

Therefore, it is particularly important to sort the fruit.

How to sort well

More and more practitioners in the fruit industry began to be aware of fruit grading, and began to do some measures. However, because most of them are small in scale and lack of funds, more traditional manual and simple instruments are used for processing. For example, a porous ruler for sorting sizes, a handheld sugar meter for testing sweetness, and a color plate for comparing the color of fruit skins.

The method of manual grading is deficient in both effect and efficiency. At present, many powerful factories and enterprises have introduced special optical sorting grading line, from fruit skin defects, sugar degree, hardness, acidity to internal lesions can be detected by the machine.

For example, In California's citrus orchards, many orchards and farms have adopted advanced digital farming technologies, including digital production warehouses. In these warehouses, advanced fruit sorting lines are equipped.

When citrus fruits enter the warehouse, they are automatically fed into the multi-channel sorting equipment. The photoelectric sorting machine tests each citrus, including measuring sweetness and acidity, fruit surface finish, as well as the presence of mold, orange peel and scratches.This digital sorting technology not only improves the quality and consistency of the fruit, but also improves the production efficiency and yield.

There are also dual-channel sorting lines like ours, where skilled workers can sort up to 450 kilograms of fruit a day, and the sorting line can "sort" 6 tons of fruit in an hour.

After using fruit sorting equipment, it can not only reduce the loss rate of fresh agricultural products from 20%-30% to 10%, but also maximize the profits of growers. Achieve multiple goals with one stone for mutual benefit.

The importance of fruit sorting and grading is self-evident, which can not only improve the quality and brand value of fruit, but also bring benefits to fruit farmers.