Last month, at the international horticulture trade show, Macfrut in Italy, an interesting new product was launched; A high-tech in-store ripeness checker for fruit. Developed in collaboration with Radio6ense and the University of Turin, the systems involves avocados packaged in a plastic case.

Named Smart Ripe, it was developed by ILIP in collaboration with Radio6ense, a spin-off of the University of Rome Tor Vergata, and with the University of Turins Department of Agricultural, Forest and Food Sciences.

A shopper selects the fruit and places it onto a small cradle-like device which digitally checks if the product is ripe via a very sensitive and selective radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag.  The tag can detect certain dielectric variations in the fruit pulp associated with ripeness, such as turgidity, acidity and water and sugar content.

ILIP research and development manager Luigi Garavaglia said Smart Ripe is the first technology that can monitor - in real-time and in a non-invasive way - the freshness and ripeness of a fresh product:

"With this innovation, we are paving the way to numerous applications that will improve handling of fruit and vegetables at the point of sale and the consumer purchase experience.”

ILIP business development and marketing director, Roberto Zanichelli, told that the system was an innovation the company was very proud of because it is a step towards packaging that not only offers protection and conservation, but also a value creation factor for the supply chain.