Perfect Fruit

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 Overview  Would you buy a bruised banana? Many shoppers won’t. And that is having a huge impact on the banana industry.  PhD candidate Indika Fernando is researching how to improve banana quality through supply chain management.  Bananas are susceptible to bruising. The resulting wastage can range from five per cent to 40 per cent depending on the country. It’s a lot of money we are talking about. The chances of a consumer buying a bruised banana are minimised, so it is a lost opportunity for the retailer as well as the producer.  Methods  “What we are trying to understand with this research what is going on from the producer to the retailer and what causes this damage to the bananas.” Indika said the banana industry is huge, both here and across the world. Even if the damaged goods is less than five percent, in one delivery that is a huge amount considering the entire loss. That’s why this project is of such importance. “There are several reasons for wastage in the fresh produce supply chain as the fruit is travelling. “Compression forces, vibration forces, and impact forces. What we are trying to do is analyse the vibration force and how it impacts the fresh produce using sensors.  To investigate the banana bruising, Indika uses a small model truck fitted with vibration sensors that capture impact. “The sensors are capable of capturing data at a very high rate, at about 400 readings per second.  Mechanism  “What we try to do is establish the link between the variables and the vibration impact, and the result of the damage.” The vibration impact is captured wirelessly and transferred onto a computer program, allowing Indika to see the vibration signals captured. “The signals are processed in real time so we can actually see what’s going on in terms of vibration. “We can then try to quantify it and try to characterise the vibration impacts with the damages to the produce. Then we can see how best we can work to eliminate this loss and improve the visual quality. We use toy trucks, but the aim is to use these sensors in the real environment. “The GPS is enabled in the sensors so you can see which part of the supply chain the shock or vibration was encountered, so you can go to the root cause. One of the challenges was to get the GPS signal out of the containers because they’re made out of metal. We’re working on that. We plan to use about six sensors in the real trucks’ cargo holds. If we really know the factors behind the damage we can develop counter measures.