Food Quality Excellence: The Intersection of Art & Tech in Food Grading

Food grading is one of the most critical roles in the fresh produce industry, indispensable for guaranteeing food safety and assessing the quality of each food product. But it’s also technically complex, relying on a wide range of skills spanning agriculture, food science and quality control. 

Because of this, experienced fresh fruit and vegetables quality managers are highly trained and hard to come by. Highly regarded quality managers have mastered the art of evaluating fresh produce, as well as the extensive science that lies behind it. And they work exceptionally long hours, particularly if the organizations they work for still rely on traditional, manual evaluation processes. This is a particularly widespread problem, because the fresh produce industry is a latecomer to the wave of AI and digitization transforming industries across the board.

In this article, we’re examining how this wave is changing food grading – both as an art and a science – and how forward-thinking companies should be thinking about using AI to create modern food management systems.

Food Grading as Art: Developing a “Gut Feel” for Fresh Produce

Each food grade system aligns with a specific set of standards: the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for the US, EU Quality Standards for Europe, or the medievally-named Codex Alimentarius set out by the UN And WHO. Each set of standards has its own requirements for each letter grade. And it’s critical for organizations to know the difference between grade A and grade B, so that they know how to prioritize the distribution of their products. 

Depending on where they work, fresh produce quality managers need to understand these standards, and apply them consistently to large quantities of produce. But regardless of the place, the stakes are high: failure to meet food safety standards can lead to financial losses and reputational damage, not to mention the potential impact on consumer health if sub-par produce makes it into food packaging and into supermarket aisles.

A Knack for Accuracy

As a result, quality managers with years of experience in the field develop a feel for quality. Of course, they can tell more about a piece of produce based on its appearance, texture or aroma, than most of us could.

This knack for accuracy comes from a complex interconnected skill set:

Botanical Knowledge: Understanding of fruit and vegetable varieties and their growth characteristics.

Quality Standards Expertise: Familiarity with grading standards and regulations set by agencies.

Attention to Detail: Ability to meticulously inspect produce for defects, ripeness, and overall quality.

Analytical Skills: Proficiency in using tools and techniques to measure factors like size, color, and texture.

Communication: Clear and effective communication with growers, suppliers, and regulatory bodies.

Problem-Solving: Ability to address issues related to non-compliance or food safety concerns swiftly and effectively.

But even the best quality managers is only human, so their judgments involve a degree of subjectivity. This puts hard limits on what a fresh produce company can achieve.Human Limitations: Traditional Food Grading Without Technology

These limits have primarily to do with scale. To understand this, let’s consider a domain that’s been much quicker to digitize: software development. Highly skilled engineers are using AI code assistants to effectively halve the amount of time they spend documenting their code. This is similar to the dramatic time savings that fresh produce quality managers gain on reporting with the right software (up to 70 minutes per report). 

In both cases, the “artist” (quality managers or developer) has not been replaced but augmented. They are now able to achieve a lot more, but in less time. This opens new possibilities for companies who want to ramp up production without ramping up the size of their teams, or burning out their already thinly stretched human capital.

How Technology is Changing Food Grading for the Better

Technology is the just-in-time solution that fresh produce businesses need to avoid this dilemma altogether. A new category of quality control software is available, one that combines AI, machine learning, computer vision and related technologies in a configuration that’s tailored to the unique needs of this growing but challenging industry. 

These technologies automate the routine workflows, so that quality managers can focus on interpreting, and making important business decisions using the data that the software provides. Where the traditional method involves visual inspection, subjective judgment and manual reporting, quality control software like Clarifresh yields a process that looks like this:

• The quality managers performs an automated inspection using computer vision on an enabled device
• Quality is automatically assessed and defects categorized
• This information shows up instantaneously in a dashboard for quality managers to make decisions about which produce should go where

Redefining the Art of Quality Control with Clarifresh

In other words, software like Clarifresh allows quality control professionals to spend more of their time on the art of effective quality control, and less time validating the scientific data they collect in the field.

Through the application of advanced techniques, this technology can complement human expertise, providing data-driven insights that enhance decision-making. More and more companies are beginning to adopt these technologies in order to access vital benefits like:

• Consistency across all inspections conducted within an organization
• Elimination of subjectivity and error
• Unprecedented efficiency and scalability
• Enhanced decision-making through data-driven insights

At Clarifresh, we’re right at this intersection of science and art, helping businesses to improve their fresh produce processes, reducing waste, and modernizing their operations to stay ahead in a highly competitive arena.

Contact our team here to learn more about what modern, high-tech solutions could do for your business.