Cutting Avocado Quality Control From 3.5 Days to 2 Hours With Normec Maas Goodacre

Article from Fructidor. Original Article Link.

Normec Maas Goodacre has recently boosted its quality assurance efficiency by acquiring a second Avocado Meter from Felix Instruments. In an exclusive interview, Matthijs Jongejan, a dedicated quality inspector and supervisor at Normec Maas Goodacre, discusses the instrument’s features, practical applications, and the compelling reasons behind its integration into their operations.

Normec Maas Goodacre, based in the Netherlands, is a leader in providing comprehensive food safety and quality solutions for the food industry. Their integrated approach encompasses process control, laboratory analysis, taste evaluations, QA automation, and risk management.

Felix Instruments is at the forefront of creating the world’s most precise, portable, non-destructive measurement tools. These instruments are designed for multiple purposes.

Matthijs Jongejan highlights the efficiency brought by Felix Instruments’ Avocado Meter. “The instrument saves us a lot of time, which is crucial for us right now. We are receiving many avocados and new shipments. For every shipment that arrives, we take samples from each container. Different growers, different sizing. And then we measure the dry matter of the avocados. For example, if 20 containers arrive, plus air shipments, we need to sample 60 to 80 avocados per day,” says Jongejan.

He continues, “With the old oven method, it takes at least 20 minutes per sample of manual work, so for 80 fruits, we would have spent at least 3.5 working days. With the quality meter by Felix Instruments, it takes around 1 to 1.5 minutes per avocado. The instrument takes three scans of one side of the fruit, then we flip it around and make another three scans. It is fantastic.”

The Avocado Meter is non-destructive, using near-infrared (NIR) technology. It enables users to inspect incoming fruits and assess avocado quality parameters accurately without destroying the samples. Businesses utilizing these advanced tools can benefit from significant time savings and reduced fruit waste. Calculating the return on investment is straightforward: consider the number of fruits that can be sold daily alongside the saved staff working hours.