ODENBERG, which designs and supplies highly advanced optical sorters and graders, peeling systems and chilling and freezing solutions, will demonstrate its Halo 500 optical sorter in booth 4310 at the Produce Marketing Association's Fresh Summit in Anaheim, CA, Oct. 26-28.

According to the company, the Halo is the latest advancement in sensor-based optical sorters for a high-performance sort or grade for quality, shape, color, size and for food safety. The Halo range of sorters provides considerable advantages and benefits such as increased yield, capacity, significant labor reduction and operational efficiency. The low costs associated with running these machines allow for a fast return on investment. Additionally, Halo is simple to operate and offers a very short learning curve, where no specialist skills are required.

Halo is offered in four sizes, ranging from 20- to 80-inch belt widths, to accommodate capacities from 10 tons per hour to more than 50 tons per hour for potatoes. Halo offers both fresh pack and processing customers a range of application solutions that cover a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. The products Halo can sort include, but are not limited to peeled and unpeeled potatoes (russet, sweet, varietals and specialty), carrots, tomatoes, peaches, pears, green beans, apricots, cucumbers, pickles, peppers, radishes, garlic, onions, olives and citrus fruits.

"Halo incorporates our next-generation vision unit, which views each piece of fruit or vegetable 'in flight,' using a combination of LED, CCD camera and NIR (near infra-red) to perform targeted spectroscopy with unequalled one milimeter resolution," Diarmuid Meagher, vice president of sorter sales, said in a press release.

"First-grade produce gently passes through the system while second- and third-grade items are redirected into individual streams, with more grading options available. The entire system is controlled easily by intuitive touch screens."

Halo's advanced technology uses 100 times more processing power than ODENBERG's Titan sorter, which enables it to analyze visible features, including size, shape, color, blemishes and foreign objects in addition to difficult-to-see defects. Halo combines intelligence with advanced control, providing a greater level of flexibility and accuracy in reliable, high-capacity, compact sorters.

In February 2011, ODENBERG was acquired by Norway-based TOMRA Systems ASA. The acquisition has enabled TOMRA Sorting Solutions to combine its existing technologies with those of ODENBERG to create Halo to deliver new standards in food processing. For further information visit www.odenberg.com