RICHLAND, Wash. — With the global fresh produce market worth an estimated $675 billion, over $100 billion in the U.S. alone, consumer satisfaction is an important goal not only for the fresh produce industry but also for the wider economy. Despite this, fresh produce supply chain quality management has lagged behind other industries in the test and measurement arena, in part because test machines have a hard time measuring the taste and texture of fresh produce.
MOHR Test and Measurement LLC (MOHR) has been working on this problem for more than 15 years and today announced the availability of a new generation of test equipment that represents a quantum leap in sensitivity and accuracy. The new portable, battery-powered MDT-2 Computerized Penetrometer and Texture Analyzer uses the industry's most sophisticated texture analysis technology and is designed to measure the quality of a variety of fresh produce.
According to MOHR, the MDT-2 can help growers, packers, and retailers track and manage quality with more confidence, reducing or eliminating the need for current test methods that can be costly, time-consuming, and/or subject to error. For example, MOHR's Crispness (Cn) measurement has been shown to correlate closely with apple crispness and overall eating quality as rated by expert tasters with the Washington State University Apple Breeding Program (HortTechnology, Dec 2010, 20:1026-1029). WSU researchers plan to use Crispness measurements to reduce the need for labor-intensive taste-testing as they develop new apple varieties.
Several other MDT-2 measurements such as Creep (C0), which measures viscous deformation of the fruit or vegetable interior, hold similar promise for evaluating taste and storability parameters that previously required human participation. "The MDT-2 gives the fresh produce industry an accurate, automated, traceable record of eating quality," says Charles Mohr, MOHR principal engineer and co-inventor of the MDT-2's texture testing technology. "This is an excellent tool for tracking and documenting the effect of new quality measures."
The MDT-2 replaces the MDT-1 texture analyzer and improves on or maintains all key specifications of the older model: 5 mg firmness sensitivity (previously 6 g), +/- 30 kg force range (+30 kg), 0.001 mm distance resolution (unchanged), and force sampling at up to 14 kHz (3 kHz). The MDT-2 also receives a number of other major upgrades including intuitive graphical touchscreen interface, relational database for searching and sorting of test results, 2GB internal storage good for thousands of tests, dual battery packs, and a precision external fruit scale that doubles as an automated calibrator.
Pricing and Availability
The MDT-2 is available now with U.S. MSRP of $11,875. To learn more about the MDT-2 instrument and available accessories, please visit http://www.mohr-engineering.com/mdt .
About MOHR
Established in 1982, MOHR (formerly Mohr and Associates) develops innovative test and measurement instrumentation for a wide range of industries and applications. Learn more at http://www.mohr-engineering.com .
Contact: Brandt MohrPhone: +1 (888) 852-0408Fax: +1 (509) 946-4395E-mail: info@mohrandassociates.com
All trade names referenced are the service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.
Source: MOHR Test and Measurement LLC
