Share

NKT Photonics Partners on Real-time ”interactive storage” Quality Control in Fresh Agro Products (QCAP)

NKT Photonics enters as partner into quality control project with supply of Mid IR laser technology

The agri-food sector is an important industrial sector in the NWE region and has a high economic and social value. However, a significant part of the fruit and vegetables production is lost, due to spoilage/degradation during handling/storage/transportation between farm and distribution. Monitoring of product-produced indicators via an interactive storage system (ISS) in the storage atmosphere is a promising way to gain better control over the quality of the stored produce. There is, however, limited collaboration between innovation stakeholders (research institutes, industry, SMEs, end-users) on a transnational level that limits the development/broad implementation of the interactive storage system for different fresh products and in different regions.

Currently, no equipment is available to reliably measure the relevant volatiles with sufficient sensitivity in the storage atmosphere in a simple and cost-effective way. At TRL4, the main outputs of QCAP will be the development of a prototype of the interactive storage system and an interactive storage system validated in real life, commercial conditions (at TRL6) in Germany (apples/blueberries), UK (potatoes) and Belgium (pears).

NKT Photonics joins this project as partner and will be supplying Mid IR laser technology to the project.

More information about the project can be found on the QCAP website.