At present, fresh fruit bunch (FFB) grading is done visually by quality control conductors at estates and by graders at purchasing centres and mills. The most critical process in FFB grading is to categorize the bunches into ripe, under ripe and unripe. The MPOB manual on FFB grading defines a ripe bunch when the mesocarp colour is reddish orange and the bunch has 10 or more empty sockets of detached fruitlets; an under ripe bunch has yellowish orange with less than 10 empty sockets; and an unripe bunch has yellow mesocarp with no empty sockets (MPOB, 1995).

Main Researcher: Hj Idris Hj Omar    
Email: idriso@mpob.gov.my