Within a year of its acquisition by global food sorting leader TOMRA, New Zealand’s Compac has announced the launch of its Inspectra2™ internal inspection system for fresh produce.
Combined with its Spectrim external defect grading platform, Compac offers packhouses the ability to consistently and accurately grade external and internal characteristics of fresh produce including apples, kiwifruit, citrus and avocados at production speeds.
Andrew McQueen, Senior Product Manager at Compac explains that the new Inspectra2™ platform uses a spectrometer to measure light absorption as a indicator of internal properties and effects without touching the produce.
“There is a lot of value to be gained for the packhouse by accurately measuring the internal properties of each piece of produce. Inspectra2™ is designed for flexible application, capable of measuring properties such as sugar content (brix), dry matter and internal defects.” he says.
The ability to detect these properties for each individual fruit allows packers to protect and enhance brand value by creating premium products. Inspectra2™ also helps optimize the supply chain by improving orchard yield and reducing food waste during storage and transport.
As the second-generation of Compac’s proven internal grading technology, Inspectra2™ was created with usability at the forefront of its design an improved user interface with streamlined modeling and calibration makes Inspectra2™ significantly easier to operate and manage than its predecessor.
McQueen says “Inspectra2™ applies a number of our learnings from Spectrim and represents a generational step forward for internal grading as our engineers begin working with the world-leading spectroscopy team at TOMRA.” He adds that Inspectra2™ joins other Compac solutions, including the award-winning Spectrim platform, to create a food safe-focused, industrially designed, robust, future proofed platform capable of meeting industry demands.
“A fruit’s external appearance is important for the first purchase by consumers, but for repeat purchases, a complete experience is vital. That means the fruit must taste as good as it looks – and that is why our customers will use Inspectra2™ to ensure a positive experience with consumers and ultimately protect their brand,” McQueen concludes.
Launch sites will be installed in the first half of 2018 and the global roll-out is expected to begin soon after.
At 11:00am, 20th October, Inspectra2™ will be unveiled on the Compac & TOMRA booth (#253) at PMA Fresh Summit in New Orleans.
About Compac:
Compac provides integrated post-harvest solutions and services to the global fresh produce industry using the world’s most advanced grading technology. Combining industry leading solutions with award-winning grading platforms like Spectrim, the company’s mission is to enable its customers to improve returns, gain operational efficiencies, and ensure a safe food supply via smart, usable technologies. To achieve this, Compac operates centers of excellence, regional offices and manufacturing locations within the United States, Europe, South America, Asia, Africa and Australasia.
For further information about Compac, please see www.compacsort.com
Compac is member of the TOMRA Group that was founded on innovation in 1972 that began with design, manufacturing and sale of reverse vending machines (RVMs) for automated collection of used beverage containers. Today, TOMRA has ~90,000 installations in over 80 markets worldwide and had total revenues of ~6.6 billion NOK in 2016. The Group employs ~3,500 globally, and is publicly listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange. (OSE: TOM). The TOMRA Group continues to innovate and provide cutting-edge solutions for optimal resource productivity within two main business areas: Collection Solutions (reverse vending and material recovery) and Sorting Solutions (recycling, mining and food sorting). For further information about TOMRA, please see www.tomra.com
Source: Compac
