Fruit Logisitca Innovation Award nominee Hortkinetix has brought its 'QualyCheck' App to the German market. CEO Dr. Felix Lippert tells www.freshfruitportal.com about how it works.

Hortkinetix is on the verge of rolling out its new app for Android, designed to make the checklist process for incoming fruit and vegetable loads much easier.

QualyCheck helps to inspect an assortment of produce through a series of digital actions from a Smartphone, removing the need for the long paper trail usually associated with quality checking procedures.

"At the moment we have inspectors all over Germany who go through incoming loads of fruit and vegetables each day and report to the local retailers about what kind of defects there are in onions, apples and so on," Lippert says.

"The idea is not to use paperwork anymore. Last year we decided to bring this tool onto the market because it’s suitable for complete fruit and vegetable work.

"Checking incoming loads is a daily thousand-fold routine which I think will be supported by this app."

The app can be installed directly into a customer’s dashboard as a back-end system and steers the user through the routine of checking loads before finalizing reports.

"There is a complete system of all of the products and all the defects which exist for apples, onions, strawberries; the complete assortment.

"We defined each commodity with its most possible defects. For example you can choose apples and then you have a pulldown menu asking about the minimum requirements in the apple.

"It’s a kind of checklist and if something is forgotten it brings you back to the missing information and then you can go back to the load to complete it. So if you forgot the lot number, or the importer details or the sample size, you will be reminded."

Currently the platform is in German, but French, Spanish and English formats are being created and an IOS version is also being developed.

"It’s also possible to take pictures with your mobile so if you are in the process of documenting the bruises on strawberries for instance, you have the chance to take a picture and then you add the picture to the records.

"You end up with a complete picture of the commodity and it’s a kind of automation of a system."

Dr. Lippert and his team will be giving live demonstrations of the app during Fruit Logisitica and he’s waiting with bated breath for the FLIA announcement at the end of the trade fair.

"For now the app has been focused on the German market, but this year we are expanding to the likes of Scandinavia and will be rolling out this tool more and more.

"This is a very special application and I think we have a good chance at FLIA; we are proud to be nominated in any case.

"During the exhibition, participants can use the app by themselves to see how it works. They can go through the complete procedure and see a finalized report on the screen which then is generated by email to their back office."

www.freshfruitportal.com