OSU researchers develop AI tool to optimize avocado ripeness

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Avocados are a delicate fruit. If you use them right away, they aren’t ripe enough. Wait too long and you risk finding brown spots.

Now, there’s an app for that.

Oregon State University researchers have developed artificial intelligence that predicts the ripeness and quality of an avocado.

“Avocados are among the most wasted fruits globally due to over-ripeness,” OSU Assistant Professor Luyao Ma said in a statement.

Ma said she was also inspired by her frustrations. She frequently makes avocado toast and never knows whether she’s cutting into a ripe one or not, she said.

The tool predicts avocado ripeness with a 92% accuracy rate, and internal quality with 84% accuracy, according to an OSU press release. The findings were recently published in the academic journal, Current Research in Food Science.

“Our goal was to create a tool that helps consumers and retailers make smarter decisions about when to use or sell avocados,” Ma said.

Scientists from OSU worked with a team at Florida State University to train AI models using more than 1,400 images of Hass avocados.

They believe the technology has the potential to be used with other types of food in the future, and can be useful to individual consumers as well as in fruit processing facilities.

Ma said she focused on avocados due to their high market value and high waste rate.

About 30% of the world’s food production is wasted, according to the press release. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has even set a goal to reduce food waste by half by 2030.

“Avocados are just the beginning,” Ma said. “This technology could be applied much more broadly, helping consumers, retailers, and distributors make smarter decisions and reduce waste.”