El líder del mercado de bayas frescas, Driscoll’s, ha anunciado una asociación con la empresa israelí Consumer Physics para aprovechar su tecnología SCiO e innovar el proceso de medición de calidad.

La tecnología de Infrarrojo Cercano (NIR) y el diseño innovador ofrecido a través de la SCiO Cup de Consumer Physics permitirán a Driscoll’s medir el Brix de sus bayas de manera más efectiva.

Esto también habilitará su Sistema de Recompensas de Calidad, que mide y recompensa a sus cultivadores independientes que traen consistentemente bayas de gran sabor desde la cosecha hasta el consumidor.

“Constantemente buscamos maneras de mejorar el sabor de nuestras bayas”, dijo Brie Reiter Smith, Directora de Diseño de Sistemas de Calidad y Tecnología de la Cadena de Suministro de Driscoll’s.

“Invertir en tecnología que garantice una mayor consistencia de sabor dentro de nuestras variedades de bayas patentadas es importante para nuestros continuos esfuerzos por elevar la experiencia de nuestros consumidores de bayas. Asociarnos con Consumer Physics fue una decisión fácil. Su impresionante y novedoso dispositivo de medición de brix nos permite recompensar a los cultivadores independientes de nuestra red que brindan las bayas más maduras y de mejor sabor”.

The Consumer Physics SCiO Cup supports cloud-based software to deliver lab-grade analyses to mobile devices in seconds. An entire clamshell of strawberries is able to fit in each SCiO Cup and be scanned at one time, which eliminates the need for inspectors to select which berries to measure for Brix.

For raspberries, blackberries and blueberries, more than two six-ounce clamshells can be measured in a single reading.

Driscoll’s will begin integrating SCiO Cup devices within its quality measurement process this month in the U.S., Mexico and Canada. By the end of 2021, Driscoll’s will rely exclusively on the SCiO Cup device for Brix measurements in the approximately two million quality inspections conducted annually in North America.

«We are excited to see our technology adopted by Driscoll’s,” said Damian Goldring, Co-founder and CTO at Consumer Physics. “It fits perfectly with Driscoll’s innovative use case.

«The SCiO Cup delivers within seconds, accurate, consistent and non-destructive Brix analysis in berries. We have been developing this solution closely with Driscoll’s over the past couple of years and already see additional opportunities to implement this solution across the Driscoll’s supply chain in the future.»

From sensors, smart systems, data warehouse and proprietary analytics to monitor and improve product quality, innovation is embedded across the Driscoll’s supply chain.

Over the years, Driscoll’s Quality Assurance team also developed analytical models and other tools that help the company proactively drive change and manage risk., using its Delight Platform that measures and rewards delivering good quality.

Introduced more than a decade ago, a Quality Rewards System was designed to further reward independent growers that harvest the ripest, most attractive fruit while meeting key quality elements of freshness.

As part of this quality measurement system, Driscoll’s family of independent growers are rewarded based on their ripeness performance relative to growers with the same crop in the same geography.

The Consumer Physics technology directly supports this undertaking by enabling the non-destructive measure of degrees Brix that is fast, simple, highly accurate, scalable and provides real-time data without waste.