Philippe GIRAUD, SETOP GIRAUD TECHNOLOGIE, Cavaillon - France: "For quality fruit..."

Philippe GIRAUD, SETOP GIRAUD TECHNOLOGIE, Cavaillon - France: "For quality fruit..." SETOP was created in 1986. Its vocation is the design and the exploitation of fruit quality control and grading tools. Interview with Philippe Giraud, director, who gives us his impressions about the becoming of quality by 2005... Fructidor: Mr. Giraud, could you briefly explains the origins of SETOP? P. Giraud: The company was originally founded to exploit the "TOP84" machine, which is a machine that measures the sugar content of melons. Since then, it has developed other products for the control and grading of fruit. Fructidor: You are specialised in the research & development of tools for fruit quality controls. What types of machines do you propose? P. Giraud: We propose two types of machines : production machine tools for a routine inspection and machines known as acceptance machines for an evaluation according to a sample. For the acceptance, the "Pimprenelle" machine measures 5 parameters (sugar, firmness, weight, acidity, juiciness) for all the juicy fruit (apples, peaches, kiwifruit... )For melons, TOPII measures the weight and the sugar content ; it can be used in acceptance or production. TOPIII and TOPIV, our new melon quality control infra-red machines of are production machine tools. Fructidor: What is your policy in terms of quality ? P. Giraud: According to the treated products and the type of operator to who you work with, one or the other type of machine is recommended, thus, the acceptance machines are used by important structures, producers, co-operatives or buying central that have to evaluate a great quantity and variety of contributions. The acceptance machine enables them to follow "in real time" in an objective way the characteristics of their products. It also makes it possible to file the data collected for a later thorough analysis. It is also a marketing tool to propose the quality policy of the company. In production, we propose the "TOP" machines for melons. Fructidor: On which parameters do you define the concept of gustatory quality? What solutions do you offer? P. Giraud

: Several, of course different ones according to the species. There are the measurable parameters: sugar, acidity, firmness, then the flavours that are not measurable for the moment . Among the parameters we can measure, their importance is different according to the fruit species. For example : - melon : sugar content only, - peaches: sugar, acidity, firmness, - citrus fruit: sugar content, acidity and juiciness, - apples: sugar, acidity, firmness. Our solution for melons is the near infra-red technology (NIR), which is very powerful for sugar and internal defects. For the other fruit, "Pimprenelle" remains the best adapted machine because it is the only one able to measure at the same time sugar levels, acidity and firmness in an effective way on all type of fruit. Fructidor: Who are your customers? P. Giraud: They cover different sectors, from production to buying central and research centres. Fructidor: What advantages offer the fruit quality control ? P. Giraud: I think it is obvious for everyone that there are multiple advantages, including follow-up and improvement of the production, market segmentation, etc. Fructidor: Quality has of course a cost. By consequence, do you think that there is real market for the products of "Quality" or is it still a minority? P. Giraud: The market for the products of quality is immense, provided that it "is not leaded" by low quality products. Quality can be developed provided that customer information are good to give to the consumer the means of recognising the products of quality. From there, the cost is not insurmountable. Fructidor: In 2005, traceability will be obligatory. Do you think that Europe will be ready ? Will you propose specific tools ? P. Giraud: The operators are dealing with it one after the other, so I think that they will be ready. As for us, all our machines will help to set up traceability.