Non-destructive methods of measuring tuber turgor pressures to assess the risk of potato bruising

新鲜农产品的擦伤是农业各行业的一个重大问题。土豆特别容易擦伤，而作物擦伤是质量下降的主要原因之一，导致有价值的作物以其真实价格的一小部分出售，每年给该行业造成数百万英镑的损失。检测损伤的土豆通常是在质量控制环境中进行的，但一旦发生损伤，除了防止损伤的土豆被用于新鲜生产线外，已经太晚了。取而代之的是，对单个土豆在加工流程的早期阶段擦伤的可能性进行测量，这样它们就可以相应地进行分离。但在不破坏块茎的情况下测量对瘀伤的敏感性从来没有做过，这是一个巨大的挑战。与瘀伤相关的一个关键特性被称为膨压，它是对细胞内部压力的测量，这种压力导致细胞变得更加僵硬，更能承受钝器的侮辱，比如被允许从高度上坠落。在这个项目中，我们建议与分析科学家合作，试验一系列尖端技术，我们相信这些技术的输出可能使我们能够区分高和低充气压力的块茎，从而区分对瘀伤的不同敏感性。在最初的实验中，我们将测试几种潜在的测量技术，然后我们将重点介绍最有希望进行更深入测试的技术。我们的目标是在农业环境中为马铃薯加工过程中的进一步开发和商业应用确定一种合适的方法。如果我们成功了，直接节约可以用每年10毫秒的GB来衡量，通过环境效益和减少食物浪费实现的间接节省要高得多。

Bruising of fresh produce is a significant problem for various strands of the agricultural industry. Potatoes are particularly susceptible to bruising, and bruised crops are one of the major reasons for quality downgrades, resulting in valuable crops being sold for a fraction of their true price and costing the industry £millions annually. Detection of bruised potatoes is typically done in QC environments, but once bruising has occurred it is too late to do much about it, other than to prevent the bruised potatoes from being used in fresh produce lines. Instead, it would be more useful to have a measure of the likelihood of individual potatoes to bruise at an early point in the processing pipeline, so that they could be segregated accordingly. But measuring susceptibility to bruising without destroying the tubers has never been done and is a substantial challenge.A key property that correlates with bruising is termed turgor pressure, and is a measure of the pressure inside cells that leads to them becoming more rigid and more able to stand blunt force insults, such as being allowed to fall from height. In this project we propose to team up with analytical scientists to trial a range of cutting-edge technologies, the outputs of which we believe may allow us to differentiate tubers with high versus low turgor pressures, and hence differential susceptibility to bruising. In initial experiments, we will test several potential measurement techniques following which we will focus on the most promising technique for more in depth testing. We aim to identify an appropriate methodology for further development and commercial application during potato processing in an agricultural environment. If we are successful, direct savings could be measured in £10Ms per annum, with indirect savings through environmental benefits and reductions in food waste being substantially higher.