Currently the Rapid Assessment Unit is conducting research in the areas of horticulture, seafood quality and safety including:

Current projects and future research directions

• Aging tropical fish otoliths for harvest management
• Fish flavour assessment
• Seafood quality and safety assessment
• Quality attributes of pineapples
• Quality assessment of dairy products
• Robotic automation and non-invasive assessment for fruit harvesting and packing.
• Rapid and non-invasive assessment of horticultural produce for export requirements.

Recent research activities

• Grading of sweet corn for defects and packaging requirements
• Grading avocados for maturity (dry matter/oil content) and eating quality
• Prediction of rot development (shelf life) in avocados for export potential
• Grading avocados for impact damage (bruises)
• Assessment of microbial levels in prawns
• Non-invasive assessment of external and internal quality attributes of brushed potatoes for value adding
• Rapid assessment of essential oils in sandalwood
• Kiwi fruit quality grading
• Quality assessment of mussels
• Rapid assessment of bioactive compounds in honey
• Profiling eating quality of mangoes
• Prediction of Antioxidant levels in Queen Garnet plums
• Grading sweetness levels in lychee’s
• Identification of colony and nest of origin of weaver ants
• Prediction of dietary selectivity in the Green Ringtail Possum
• Seagrass nutrition assessment
• Leaf litter assessment