Photonics startup Mantispectra takes chemical analysis out of the lab

There’s only so much a farmer can tell about his crops just by looking at them. A tomato that has turned red, for example, is certainly getting closer to harvest. But when is it optimal to harvest? Dry mass, sugar content or the concentration of other tasty compounds may still be increasing, all of which will be wasted if the fruit is plucked too early.

By providing farmers with an extra set of eyes, startup Mantispectra aims to solve this problem. The spinoff from Eindhoven University of Technology (TUE) is developing a portable optical sensing system that, in mere seconds, yields a wealth of information about the chemical composition of a tomato. This information wouldn’t only be useful for determining optimal harvest timing but also for optimizing growth conditions and, after harvest, quality control in the distribution chain.