A research on separation system design of aflatoxin contaminated dried fig

Various dry food processing plants operating in our country; there are machines and systems, which are often doing the separation process based on the physical properties. The use of these systems is not possible for separating aflatoxin contaminated agricultural products. Nowadays, products with aflatoxin are separated with the traditional methods, which are required intensive labour. In traditional separating process; the products contaminated with aflatoxin (for example dried fig), which emit bright green radiation, are separated manually by workers. Workers work between 8 and 12 hours in a day under UV lamps in a dark room, and then rest their eyes for a while in frequent intervals. This separation method reduces labour work efficiency and have negative effects on worker?s health in a long term. In addition, products with aflatoxin can remain unseperated due to the excessive tiredness of the workers.Within the context of thesis, the main aim is developing an UV lightening based separation machine system which will be activated by image processing procedure for determination and the separation of dried figs with aflatoxin. Basic components of the system have been designed as UV light sources, advanced cameras, optical sensors, image processing-automation softwares, conveyor that carries product and automatic excitation separation unit. With the designed system; aflatoxin contaminated products, which have the suitable speed on the conveyor that determined by the experiments, have been aimed to separate by low-cost, error-free, and without threads to worker?s health operation.Keywords: Aflatoxin, UV, Image Processing, Optical Sensor, Separation Unit.