Ongoing collaboration between the Applied Optics Group, the Natural Resources Institute at the University of Greenwich, NIAB-EMR, and Driscolls .
In general, the issue of surface appearance, gloss and bloom of fruits (in the case of this project, blueberries) is of particular interest to the fresh produce industry. Therefore, ways of interrogating the surface properties using OCT, as well as the work Maria (PhD student at the University of Greenwich) is doing with non-destructive chemical analysis would provide greater granularity to this problem of how you keep produce looking fresh after harvest.
Staff and students contributing to the Blueberry project:
- Prof Adrian Podoleanu, Dr Manuel Marques, Mr Adrián Fernández Uceda – Applied Optics Group, School of Physical Sciences, University of Kent.
- Dr Richard Colgan and Ms María Cárcamo de la Concepción (Ph.D. student) – Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich.
- Dr Dan Sargent – NIAB-EMR and Driscolls (Soft Fruit Breeding Company).
- For the chemical analysis of skin using DART: supervision by Drs Iain Goodall/Dr Perry Devo- School of Science, University of Greenwich.
María’s PhD is funded through The University of Greenwich’s VC scholarship fund, and the work to fund the OCT imaging was a University of Greenwich GRE-Seedling Grant (14621).


