SenseInside: Handheld NIR instrument for sub-surface food quality assessment

SINTEF and Nofima have previously developed, tested and verified a novel prototype for non-contact, sub-surface quality measurements of complex foods, e.g. determining meat content in king crabs, water content in clipfish, measuring the fat content of fish through the skin, and the sugar-content of strawberries. SenseInside project aims to verify that this prototype can be reduced in size to something more portable while still maintaining sufficient performance, providing a new decision-support tool in applications where it is not possible to have a sorting or quality monitoring system on a conveyor belt, e.g. storage warehouse, fishing boats, last mile sorting and precision agriculture. A final portable measurement solution has the potential to change the way food is monitored in parts of the value chain that are challenging to centralise. In this project, we will develop a more compact prototype and test its useability on a selection of end-users in the clip fish and king crab industries, where crucial quality measurements can make a significant difference in product quality and trade negotiations. The end results have the potential to be licensed to a new spin-out company. We believe that flexible instrumentation that empowers better decision-making and more standardised pricing can help address unsustainable patterns in production and consumption along the food value chain. We will start with the king crab and clipfish industries and then develop a business model that can be the basis for a successful commercialisation in a wider range of multi-billion-dollar markets, which also include precision agriculture, medical and bio-industries. SenseInside is the first commercial spin-out from the Centre of Research and Innovation, SFI DigiFoods The project partners are Nofima, Sintef Digital and Ard Innovation. Stakeholders from the food industry will take part by offering test facilities and value chain knowledge.