AclaroMeter - App to determine ripeness of fruit

Ripening is a process in fruits that causes them to become more palatable. In general, the fruit becomes sweeter, less green, and softer as it ripens. Even though the acidity of fruit increases as it ripens, the higher acidity level does not make the fruit seem tarter. This is attributed to the Brix-Acid Ratio.

Different Stages Of Ripening

Scientists have developed a handheld device that uses a tiny sensor to instantly determine the ripeness of a piece of fruit — no squeeze test necessary.It could be a game-changer for grocery shoppers who feel the need to fondle several pieces of fruit in the store before deciding what ultimately makes it into the shopping cart.

An Israeli start-up has developed an app which takes all the guess work out of deciding whether a piece of fruit is ripe or not.

AclarTech is an innovative startup introducing the revolutionary yet simple approach for measuring fruits and vegetables ripeness quality, freshness, durability, and taste.

AclarTech’s mobile application, AclaroMeter, monitors and analyzes fruit quality, ripeness and freshness, delivering considerable financial and operational benefits to its users.

How AclaroMeter Works

With AclaroMeter measuring fruit quality is as simple as taking a photo!

1. User scans the fruit (or a cluster of fruits) with built-in phone camera and with portable Scio molecular sensor (or spectrometer)
2. Large set of measurements about the fruit and the environment is captured. This includes fruit’s BRIX, acidity, firmness, dry weight, color, size, stains, variant and more, as well as GPS location, weather conditions, and time of sampling.
3. Optionally user can record a personal opinion about the fruit quality
4. Measurements are immediately uploaded to the cloud and are instantly being processed by an innovative, tailor-made BigData algorithm
5. The algorithm compares all the measurements to tens of thousands of existing samples of previously inspected fruits
6. The algorithm incorporates previously recorded multiple users and experts feedback, and scientific data with sophisticated machine learning techniques to produce clear and simple grades for scanned fruit’s quality, freshness, and ripeness
7. Fruit grades are available to the user within a fraction of second thanks to smart data processing and optimization methods applied in the cloud

The developers behind the app say it is ideal for farmers and can stop fruit going to waste. It also takes away the hard guesswork required in deciding whether the fruit is ripe for picking or not.

According to Start-Up Israel, AclarTech is still testing the app but British supermarket chain Tesco has expressed interest in the technology.