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<OL> <LI> Identify characteristics of nuts which contain aflatoxin and to identify those process streams in which such contaminated nuts occur; <LI> Develop and demonstrate, in field conditions,real time, economically feasible sorting methods to remove such nuts from process streams; <LI> Establish sample and single nut distributions of aflatoxins in order to develop sampling theories and to discover the source of aflatoxin contamination.
Obtain or develop large sets of contaminated and uncontaminated nuts and characterize their physical properties. The distribution of aflatoxin in various process streams is measured by sampling and standard aflatoxin analysis, protocol for which was previously developed. As appropriate, distributions are obtained by surveying data of others. X-ray image and spectroscopic sorting algorithms are developed using very large image sets of infested nuts and using standard and advanced image processing theory and multispectral analysis. Human image recognition data, if needed, is developed using panels. Install and field test hardware to implement such algorithms. Visual sorting methods are developed by use of image cameras and spectrometers, mounted on channel or belt transporters. Sample distribution theory is developed based on sums of distributions of contaminated nuts.
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Replaced: 5325-42000-015-00D (1/97).