Technology Opportunities

Avoid restricted ingredients and maintain gloss

Categories	Agriculture, Horticulture, Food & Nutrition, Post-Harvest, Quality, Shelf-life, Storage
Development Stage	Ongoing developmental research, field trials, industrial upscaling
Patent Status	PCT WO 2013/144961 A1

Highlights

• Coating of fresh produce provides protection against injuries and slows down water and weight loss in storage, extending postharvest shelf life while maintaining produce quality.
• Two coating technologies, paper-type and emulsion type, have been developed.
• Currently, hydrocolloid-wax and oil preparations contain ingredients that are restricted or prohibited in different markets and reduce gloss by as much as 30%. The newly developed coatings have a reduced or no dulling effect.
• Following the development of efficient coatings for garlic and mushrooms, new formulations have been developed for glossy fruits (such as: Pepper, Eggplant, Barriers, Persimmon etc.).

Our Innovation

New safer formulations for coating glossy fruits and vegetables and application techniques that involve variety of brushes to maintain maximum gloss. Facilitates coating of different foods by either paper-type or emulsion type coatings, with specific shape, thickness, gloss, application manner, etc.

Picture: Uncoated and coated red bell peppers after 5 weeks of storage at 21°C and 50% RH

Key Features

• The new technology not only maintains glossiness, but also reduces mechanical injuries, water and dry weight losses in storage.
• Parameters involved in applying the coatings include speed of application (revolutions per minute), brushing time, and type of brush.

Development Milestones

• The next development stage is to perform large-scale semi-commercial trials, including simulated storage and shipping for bell peppers at the green unripe and at the red stages of development.
• Adaptation to other fruits
• Automation

The Opportunity

Between 25%-80% of harvested fresh fruit and vegetables are lost due to spoilage, water and dry matter losses with consequent softening and loss of turgor.

Produce and processed foods coated include fresh vegetables such as bell peppers, eggplants, tomatoes, garlic and, onion bulbs; fruit such as apples, nectarines, plums, citrus fruits; and also coated processed foods such as hard cheeses.