Fraunhofer Institute’s Latest Micro-Device Can Check Fruit Ripeness For You

Anything that has insect-legs that is sitting on a fruit, I try to avoid.  But in this case, I’m going to make an exception.  The Fraunhofer Institute for Molecular Biology and Applied Ecology IME in Schmallenberg and for Physical Measurement Techniques IPM in Freiburg have come together to create a device for checking out whether fruit is ripe or not.

The device checks the gas emissions online and then analyzes the gases emitted from the fruit to determine whether the food is fresh or not.  The team at Fraunhofer is working on a prototype of the device and believes that it will cost thousands of dollars each to purchase somewhere down the line..

This could be useful for grocery store companies that want to verify whether the fruit sold by suppliers is legit.  If the fruit turns out to be bad, the grocery companies could ask for a refund, saving them costs and ensuring grocery customers receive higher quality food at point of purchase.

[via Physorg/Engadget]

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