NIR-2009 Exhibition

26 stands were taken and the exhibitors supported the conference. We took the opportunity to talk to most of them.

Asia has embraced the practical application of NIR. It is used it in fruit packing lines, to monitor the optimum time to pick fruit and in supermarkets to allow shoppers to determine the quality of high-value fruits. The Saika company were demonstrating a fruit sorting machine that was actually working in one corner of the exhibition. It was analysing mangosteens and mangoes for sweetness and for internal disorders: insect infestations and other damage. The development of the machine was jointly funded by the Japanese government, since previously all mangosteens imported into Japan first had to be cut in half to check for damage and then rejoined with tape! NIR provides a non-destructive alternative. Professor Graeme Batten of Sea Spec in Australia and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Near Infrared Spectroscopy kindly took me through the basics of the machine and we were able to see it correctly sorting mangosteens.