Scanner grades blood oranges from the inside out

With a background which includes Sicilian and Calabrian heritage, Anthony, Vito and Leonard Mancini of Redbelly Citrus established blood orange orchards in Australia in 2005. Grown in the fertile soils of the Riverina in Southern NSW, the environmental conditions directly match those of Catania, Sicily.

Redbelly Citrus is experiencing unprecedented demand for its blood oranges this year, with over 350 tonnes to be distributed to international markets following successful crop conditions. The company said it will export 30,000 cases of produce this year, compared with just 10,000 cases exported by Australia as a whole five years ago.

The spike in demand for the blood orange is due to the distinct, sought-after red colouring of the flesh. The darker the flesh, the more valuable the orange. However, achieving this colouration consistently has been challenging, and the only way to check has been to cut the fruit.

Now, the company is trialling a technology employing near-infrared screening to conduct an internal assessment of each piece of fruit. The scanner shines a bright light into the fruit, and the internal characteristics can be determined based on the light that scatters back out. A spectrograph is created, which will have a particular signature for each chemical constituent of the fruit.

The pigment that makes a blood orange red is called anthocyanin. It is picked up by the scanner and graphed so there will be a particular signature for an orange with lots of anthocyanin and one for fruit with low levels.

If the trial is successful, Redbelly Citrus will be able to use the process to provide various grades of blood oranges based on internal colour levels.

“The use of this new technology would take all of the guesswork out of the equation and we would be able to provide consumers with a product that would not fail to impress, 100% of the time. No more sneaky anaemic blood oranges,” said Leonard Mancini, co-director of Red Belly Citrus.

The scanner has been set up to work with the company’s existing optical graders. Len said they are working towards measuring not only colour but also the sugar to acid ratio of the fruit.

He said the company’s aim is be able to offer high-end businesses, like providores and restaurants, the consistency they want.

“We want to produce blood oranges that are guaranteed to be super dark, super black. It will change the way we can market blood oranges in this country and probably overseas as well,” he said.