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产业各个环节的重要问题。土豆特别容易受到损伤，而损伤的作物是质量降级的主要原因之一，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。对擦伤的马铃薯的检测通常在QC环境中进行，但是一旦发生擦伤，除了防止擦伤的马铃薯用于新鲜生产线之外，对其做很多事情已经太晚了。相反，更有用的是在加工管道的早期测量单个马铃薯擦伤的可能性，以便相应地将它们隔离。但是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，它是对细胞内压力的测量，导致细胞变得更加坚硬，更能承受钝力的伤害，例如从高处坠落。在这个项目中，我们建议与分析科学家合作，尝试一系列尖端技术，我们相信这些技术的输出可以让我们区分具有高膨压和低膨压的块茎，从而区分对瘀伤的敏感性。在最初的实验中，我们将测试几种潜在的测量技术，然后我们将专注于最有前途的技术进行更深入的测试。我们的目标是确定一个适当的方法，进一步发展和商业应用在马铃薯加工在农业环境中。如果我们取得成功，每年的直接节省可以达到1000万英镑，通过环境效益和减少食物浪费而间接节省的费用要高得多。

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.