More than 80 participants from throughout Australia and overseas will attend the Australian Near Infrared Spectroscopy Group (ANISG) short course and conference in Rockhampton from May 7-10.

This event is a prelude to the Foss Pacific (multinational food quality instrument vendor) conference at Rydges, Yeppoon from May 10-12.

The ANISG conference at Dreamtime Cultural Centre is conducted every two years by the Royal Australian Chemical Institute and is being held in Rockhampton in recognition of strength of near infrared spectroscopy research activity at Central Queensland University and the Department of Primary Industries and Forestry.

The 'InSight' in-line NIRS grading system for fruit sweetness, developed by CQU and Colour Vision Systems Ltd through Hortical Pty Ltd now has units operational in UK, Europe, USA and Asia, as well as Australia-NZ. A handheld version of this technology has also been developed in concert with Integrated Spectronics Pty Ltd and is near commercial launch.

Participants in the conference have registered from as far afield as Denmark, New Zealand and the United States. Keynote presentations will be made by Sumio Kawano and Sirinappa Saranwong of Japan's National Food Research Institute on application of the technology to fresh fruit, giving the conference a ' flavour' in keeping with the CQU research strength.

ANISG is an Australian learned society, which aims to promote interaction between users, researchers and developers of NIR equipment, software and chemometric data processing.

Photos: Phul Subedi (above)... one of CQU's researchers using Near Infrared Spectroscopy to improve fruit quality and Associate Professor Kerry Walsh (below), who is helping to organise the conference.