The fruits and vegetables wouldn't go through the scanner separately, as the container was too light and would get caught in the rubber curtain, so we had to weigh it down somehow. The result (cropped from all the other images)...
The scanners pick up on moisture / density, so with the cos lettuce and the slightly dried-up edamame beans I scanned, there was very little for it to find, and they appeared almost invisible. I also learned how the different colours are detected and what each represents. The colours are orange, green and blue. Blue is hard materials such as metals, batteries, wires and hard plastics. Green is for medium-density materials like most plastics, and sometimes ceramics and bone. What shows up in orange is organic matter - biological material, anything that is 'natural'. Paper, cotton clothes, leather, etc.
'So we can straightaway see the gun, which is bright blue, but not necessarily the things which we're actually looking out for, which are potentially much more dangerous - like fruit, and nuts and seeds...'
When customs officers are being trained to use these scanners, they can't rely on colour, since pretty much everything is orange, and your biosecurity risks are the same colour as your cotton socks. They have to learn to look carefully for certain shapes. And they kindly sent me a document with real-life images of sneaky produce.
The woman who was helping me was on the same wavelength in a lot of respects. She was passionate about animal welfare, fresh organic produce, and biosecurity. She told me that the infamous fruit fly came through customs undeclared in someone's luggage. When I asked how she was sure that it was introduced that way - through the airport - when so many thousands of fruits and veg are imported for sale, she told me about the sprays they use on all imported produce to kill off potentially dangerous insects and bacteria. Even 'organic' fruits and vegetables, although they might have been organically grown, will have been doused in (toxic) chemicals if they've crossed the border. That's why it's important to buy local as much as possible.
Coincidentally she also used to work for MAF, as a handler for the airport's sniffer dogs. Our family used to raise these beagles for a year at a time, before they are sent to work at the airport, and it just happened that she'd worked with Utah, one of the breeder dogs we'd looked after!
The machine and conveyor belt, in progress. While we were scanning, one of the customs officers came across to scan some mail and found some sneaky pills in one envelope! True story.
Because the international mail centre is a strictly bio-controlled area, I had to throw out all of the fruits and veges into one of their bins to be destroyed afterwards. I'd been warned that this was the case, but it was still totally devastating. Food waste makes me so sad!! Especially when it's this nutrient rich and colourful, not to mention expensive all up. Not sure that it was worth it, either, considering the image quality. Oh well. Rest in peace.
