Extending produce shelf life is a key weapon in the battle against food waste, and start-ups are fighting on the front lines.
Imagine bananas that never go bad. To Aidan Mouat, chief executive of Chicago-based Hazel Technologies, it’s not so far-fetched.
is part of a new wave of innovation seeking to slow spoilage of produce and other perishables, which experts say is a key weapon in the battle against massive food waste in the United States.As much as 40% of food — and nearly half of produce — produced annually in the U.S. goes uneaten, according to government estimates.
The company makes small sachets — about the size of a salt or pepper packet packaged with to-go orders — that can be thrown into a box of produce to shut down the food’s response to ethylene, a chemical naturally emitted by many fruits and vegetables that triggers the loss of firmness, texture and color. The sachets continuously emit a small amount of an ethylene inhibitor, changing the atmosphere in the storage box but not the food itself.
“We can extend the shelf life of practically any perishable by targeting the specific mechanism that causes it to go bad and integrating it with the packaging that already exists today,” said Mouat, who graduated from Northwestern with a doctorate in chemistry in 2016.For example, tests show an unripened pear gets an extra seven to 10 days after being treated with a Hazel sachet, plus an extra three to four days once ripe, Mouat said.
Mission, which has developed a branded product with Hazel called AvoLast, has completed one retail trial with the product and is about to launch two more, as well as a food service trial, Cortes said. So far he prefers it to other shelf life extension treatments the company has tested because it is easy to use.
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