Researchers from the Faculty of Agriculture, Food, and Environment at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have developed a groundbreaking method that allows the assessment of tomato quality while still on the plant, eliminating the need for harvesting or damaging the fruit. The study, published in the journal Computers and Electronics in Agriculture and resulting in a registered U.S. patent, offers an efficient and cost-effective solution.
The new method, developed by a team of researchers led by Dr. David Helman, is based on a unique device capable of identifying and analyzing seven key quality parameters of tomatoes—weight, firmness, dissolved sugars, acidity, vitamin C, lycopene, and pH levels—without physical contact with the fruit. This unique device can produce high-resolution images of the electromagnetic spectrum in ranges invisible to the human eye, process and analyze this data using artificial intelligence, and provide an assessment of the fruit's quality metrics.
The researchers noted that traditional methods of fruit quality assessment often damage the fruit and are limited to post-harvest evaluation. In contrast, the new device is designed to enable non-destructive quality monitoring during the growing phase, offering a faster and more cost-effective approach. The innovation lies in significantly reducing costs, as the researchers developed a model capable of predicting all quality parameters using only five wavelengths. This advancement allows for the creation of a simple and affordable device suitable for commercial use.
The study, which involved 567 fruits from five different tomato varieties grown under diverse conditions, demonstrated the method’s broad efficacy. Results showed particularly high accuracy in measuring the fruit’s weight and firmness, with prediction capabilities of 95% and 89%, respectively.