Importance of fruit and vegetable color measurement

Color is always a color stimulus that the eye perceived from a color stimulus sensation. The measurement target is not the (physical, spectral) colors evoked but the (acting) color stimulus. The measurement is carried out according to the Beer-Lambert law, which is, however, met only with monochromatic measurement. Therefore, intervals of wavelengths are formed and measured (as narrow as possible). UP Umweltanalytische Produkte GmbH is specialized in the development, production, marketing, and sales of environmental analytical products in the areas of plant physiology, among others. The company offers single measurement devices and sensors as well as complete ready-to-go measurement systems together with the related services (installation, launch, introduction, maintenance). HortiCol, the color-measurement systemThus, UP Umwelt has developed Horticol, a portable mini-spectral-photometer for color measurements of fruit and vegetable. It also includes Horticol-Software for the evaluation of colors with your pre-defined classes. Main featuresMeasurement field 3.5mm²Measurement time: 2 secSpectral range:280 - 730nm in 10nm intervalsMinimum requirements: USB 1.1, Windows 7Ready to work with our data-bases (Fruitsoft/ART-Soft) PrinciplesConnect to your PC or Notebook via USB.Do a spot measurement on your fruit or juice dropped on filter paper to measure the color just by closing the adapter.Results shown in HortiCol are L A B dE. HortiCol can average more than one measurement done on one fruit. HortiCol offers a tool to define your color classes. Give them a name like ripe blue, overripe blue, unripe blue, or whatever you like HortiCol correlates your measurements to stored color classes which gives you the option to do statistics on your data batches.