In order to implement the accuracy and robust of Chinese dates surface defect detection based on machine vision techniques on line, the method of detection for Chinese dates was studied. The Chinese date is segmented from the background in RGB color space by analyzing respectively the histogram of R, G and B channel to make comparing among them and find an optimal one, resulting in good contrast between Chinese date and background in G channel. The brightness of the damaged area edge changed clearly on the whole Chinese dates area according to the gray image of R, G and B channel, especially in G channel. It shows the gray value of the defect area breaking obviously. So the damaged area could be detected by edge detect, through image thinning the defect edge was extracted. Furthermore, the geometry parameters of defect edge were calculated, these parameters could used to distinguish the defect area with the fruit area and the degree of the defect area. Experiments result proved the methods is effective to detect defect area of Chinese date.