ABSTRACT
An explosion in the world population resulting in a serious demand for safe and quality food products has generated increased utilization of computer-based vision systems for rapid and cost-effective approaches. These methods or techniques employ food features such as size, shape, color, weight, and texture to produce measurable, readable and highly precise information for analysis and classification of food products. Digital image processing in food industries such as traffic law enforcement, artificial neural networks and automatic text extraction covers a dynamic range of activities. In recent decades, pressure on the use of chemicals in agricultural sectors that are known to cause serious detrimental health effects and environmental pollution have resulted ina search for alternative means. Computer-based vision systems in agriculture are rapidly growing due to their fast response, cost effectiveness, and health-environmental friendly nature. This chapter focuses on the contribution of image processing techniques in food manufacturing and the development of optical approaches in digital image processing suitable for food industries.
