The firmness of pears is used as a harvest indicator and to help track ripening of the fruit in wholesale and retail operations. Firmness is measured with a penetrometer that measures the force required to push an 8 mm diameter convex probe into the flesh of the fruit. The industry would like to use a nondestructive instrument that could replace the penetrometer. We compared three new methods of measuring Bartlett pear firmness with the industry standard penetrometer method. Two companies now manufacture bench-top devices (in addition to on-line versions of the technology) for measuring fruit firmness nondestructively. During the […]