Abstract
Optical sensing, being non-destructively and rapid, has been used in agriculture, forestry, livestock, and
fisheries industries for the last two decades to aid in the production and quality control of food and
biological materials. In particular, machine vision and photo-optical devices have been widely deployed
in fruit grading systems, becoming an integral part of these systems. Moreover, much wider applications
of optical sensing to biological materials and their properties in more diversified settings is expected in
the near future. In this paper, innovative optical sensing technologies utilizing the spectral reflectance
and surface structural properties of primary industry products that are currently being developed are
introduced. Such sensing systems have the potential to ameliorate the trade-off between food production
and environmental conservation imperatives.
