Blueberry growers and packers cannot reliably detect subtle defects during sorting, causing product quality issues and market rejection

Blueberry producers struggle to identify difficult-to-spot defects (bruises, mold, discoloration) during the packing process, resulting in contaminated shipments that get rejected by retailers and distributors. Manual inspection is inconsistent and labor-intensive, while existing optical sorting equipment lacks the precision needed for the delicate fruit. This directly impacts profitability as rejected batches represent total loss and damage to buyer relationships.