Super-smart computer checks whether avocados are ripe enough to eat

Avocados that are supposedly ripe enough to eat, but that you could use to put a hole in the wall: seriously frustrating. The Netherlands’ largest avocado importer has now developed a smart little device that can check whether an avocado is ripe enough to eat.

The device, about the size of a beauty case, scans an avocado from every angle. Within a few seconds, the machine knows whether an avocado is ripe enough to eat or not. This handy gadget isn’t intended for your own kitchen; it’s located at the office of Bakker Barendrecht, where six hundred shipping containers full of containers arrive every year. That’s sixty million avocados, most of which end up in the produce departments of Albert Heijn.

Making oil

The avocados are transported refrigerated; on the boat, they are nowhere near ripe yet—in fact, they are rock-hard and green. They only continue ripening once they reach the Netherlands. It’s important to Bakker to get those avocados into the stores at the right moment, because if they wait too long, they have to throw the whole lot away. At that point, they’re only suitable for making oil, which is a bit of a waste. Especially financially, because avocados are relatively expensive for a vegetable.

Drill a hole

Previously, the men at Bakker tested the avocados by drilling a small hole in them. That way, they knew for sure whether a shipment of avocados was soft and ripe. But of course, they couldn’t sell avocados with a hole in them, so that was an expensive joke. This is where the new device comes in handy: the avocados remain intact. What’s more, they can test more avocados, and it’s incredibly quick.

Mangoes too

Gerard Harleman, a buyer at Bakker, knows exactly where things go wrong: ‘A green avocado often feels harder than a brown one, but that doesn’t mean you can’t already eat it.’ The avocado-checking computer is already fully operational, so if all goes well, you won’t miss out when shopping at Albert Heijn anymore. Still stuck with a rock-hard avocado? Put it next to a banana in the fruit bowl and wait a day. Bakker is going to try to see whether their avocado machine can also check mangoes, another product that you always seem to have in your hands either rock-hard or overripe.

Also read:

• Breaking news: you can’t grow avocados from an avocado pit
• 10 hilarious avocado tweets, for lovers and haters alike
• Shocking: are avocados actually vegan?

Source: AD.nl