Lotte Mart Introduces AI Fruit Sorting System... "Capturing Taste and Quality Simultaneously"

At the Jinju Horticultural Cooperative selection center, melons are being sorted using an artificial intelligence (AI) sorter.

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Chun-han] Lotte Mart announced on the 22nd that it is selling products selected by an artificial intelligence (AI) sorting system, the first of its kind in large-scale marts, to improve the taste and quality of fruits.

The AI sorting system is an advanced version of the previously used non-destructive sweetness sorter, capable of measuring not only weight and sweetness but also moisture content and ripeness. This allows the detection of internal defects such as internal browning and overripeness, which were difficult to measure with the non-destructive sweetness sorter and accounted for most customer complaints about melons.

Similar to taking X-ray images, near-infrared rays are emitted from 10 lenses to obtain a large amount of image data, which is then analyzed through deep learning. This enables adjustment of light transmission according to various melon varieties and detection of core rot in peaches caused by gaps between the stems that damage the flesh.

Currently, Lotte Mart is selling products such as Golden Sweetness Musk Melon, Golden Sweetness Hami Melon, and Nectarine, all selected by the AI sorting system. Additionally, for fruits where sweetness is important, such as watermelon, apple, pear, and oriental melon, the sweetness unit Brix is indicated. To reduce discrepancies between sweetness measured at the production site and after arrival at the store, merchandisers (MDs) frequently visit both the production sites and stores to verify sweetness levels.

A Lotte Mart representative said, "To provide fresh foods with the best taste and quality, we are selling fruits selected by the AI sorting system, the first among large-scale marts. We plan to continuously expand the operation of cutting-edge sorting systems to offer products with more consistent quality and secure competitiveness in fresh foods through the expansion of taste-indicating barcodes."