The physical and mechanical properties of baby spinach were investigated, including density, Young's modulus, fracture strength, and friction coefficient. The average apparent density of baby spinach leaves was 0.5666 g/mm 3 . The tensile tests were performed using parallel, perpendicular, and diagonal directions with respect to the midrib of each leaf. The test results showed that the mechanical properties of spinach are anisotropic. For the parallel, diagonal, and perpendicular test directions, the average values for the Young's modulus values were found to be 2.137MPa, 1.0841 MPa, and 0.3914 MPa, respectively, and the average fracture strength values were 0.2429 MPa, 0.1396 MPa, and 0.1113 MPa, respectively. The static and kinetic friction coefficient between the baby spinach and conveyor belt were researched, whose test results showed that the average coefficients of kinetic and maximum static friction between the adaxial (front side) spinach leaf surface and conveyor belt were 1.2737 and 1.3635, respectively, and between the abaxial (back side) spinach leaf surface and conveyor belt were 1.1780 and 1.2451 respectively. These works provide the basis for future development of a whole-surface online imaging inspection system that can be used by the commercial vegetable processing industry to reduce food safety risks.