Near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy has been widely reported for its useful applications in assessing internal fruit qualities. Motivated by apple consumption in the global market, this study aims to evaluate the possibility of applying NIR imaging to detect slight bruises in apple fruits. A simple optical setup was designed, and low-cost system components were used to promote the future development of practical and cost-efficient devices. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, slight bruises were created by a mild impact with a comparably low impact energy of only 0.081 Joules. Experimental results showed that 100% of bruises in Jazz and Gala apples were accurately detected immediately after bruising and within 3 hours of storage. Thus, it is promising to develop customer devices to detect slight bruises for not only apple fruits but also other fruits with soft and thin skin at their early damage stages.