Supercontinuum Light Sources For Hyperspectral Subsurface Laser Scattering Applications For Food Inspection

A materials structural and chemical composition influences its optical scattering properties. In this paper we investigate the use of subsurface laser scattering (SLS) for inferring structural and chemical information of food products. We have constructed a computer vision system based on a supercontinuum laser light source and an Acousto-Optic Tunable Filter (AOTF) to provide a collimated light source, which can be tuned to any wavelength in the range from 480 to 900 nm. We present the newly developed hyperspectral vision system together with a proof-of-principle study of its ability to discriminate between dairy products with either similar chemical or structural composition. The combined vision system is a new way for industrial food inspection allowing non-intrusive online process inspection of parameters that is hard with existing technology.