Agri-tech innovator secures project funding to reduce bruised potato waste
B-hive Innovations , a cutting-edge , agri-tech research and development business is embarking on a new collaborative programme that aims to reduce the risk of potato bruising and develop technologies that could reduce supermarket waste .
B-hive has been awarded funding by Innovate UK , as part of its Analysis for Innovators ( A4I ) programme , to undertake the nine-month TuberTurgor project in partnership with scientists at the National Physical Laboratory ( NPL ).
Together , the research team will investigate non-destructive methods of
90 FDPP - www . fdpp . co . uk measuring turgor pressure in potatoes ; this is the force inside cells that pushes outwards , allowing the cells to withstand shocks and reduce bruising .
The project will gather extensive data to provide proof of concepts for tools that ultimately could automatically sort different fresh produce by bruising risk .
Dr Barbara Correia , UKRI Future Leaders Fellow and TuberTurgor project lead at B-hive , said : “ Growers and supermarkets are increasingly impacted by potato bruising that is brought on by prolonged periods of drought from rising global temperatures . This can drastically increase susceptibility to bruising damage during handling , so there is a supply-chain need to investigate how this can be reduced through devising early , non-destructive detection measures .”
Collaborating with the team at NPL to utilise its technical expertise and access to turgor analysis techniques , B-hive will be testing a series of prospective methods to measure turgor pressure . A range of techniques will be explored , including physical hardness measures , ultrasonic and spectroscopic testing , as well as high resolution imaging approaches .