From Yellowed Broccoli to Mushy Avocados: How UF Scientists Are Using AI To Cut Food Waste, Loss
If you have ever brought home seemingly fresh produce from the grocery store only to find it wilted and moldering a few days later, Tie Liu feels your pain.
“Everybody has this problem: Which of these vegetables or fruits should I use first? Guess wrong, and you end up throwing out the food,” said Liu, a postharvest researcher and assistant professor in the UF/IFAS horticultural sciences department.
Consumers are not the only ones who have this problem, Liu added.
“If you are transporting food from the farm to retailer, knowing the freshness of the produce can help you better plan ahead and maximize the freshness of the product,” Liu said. “But right now, there is no quick, easy way to know how long, for example, a head of broccoli has until it’s no longer fresh.”
As soon as something is harvested, a series of chemical changes begin inside the fruit or vegetable, and the produce starts to degrade. Scientists call this process “senescence.”
That broccoli might look fine to the human eye, but inside, the clock is ticking. That is why Liu is investigating whether it is possible to develop a hand-held or wearable device that can look beyond the visual spectrum to determine freshness.
Learn more about From Yellowed Broccoli to Mushy Avocados: How UF Scientists Are Using AI To Cut Food Waste, Loss.