Edible Coating That Mimics Plant Cuticles Delays Spoilage of Fresh Fruits and Vegetables

Innovation: Industry

Apeel Sciences

2012

Image: Katherine Chase / Unsplash / CC BY SA - Creative Commons Attribution + ShareAlike

Protect From Loss of Liquids

Water is essential to life. Liquids, mostly water, make up 70 to 90% of all living systems, and the loss of even a small percentage can mean the difference between life and death. Living systems must maintain a proper liquid balance, which is especially difficult in dry conditions. To do so, they must control the movement of liquids across their boundaries. Living systems do this using structures or waterproof materials to prevent or slow liquid movement. For example, when humans receive a cut, they must limit blood loss. Scattered throughout the bloodstream are lens-shaped structures that serve to plug the wound.

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Protect From Microbes

In living systems, microbes play important roles, such as breaking down organic matter and maintaining personal and system health. But they also pose threats. Bacteria can be pathogens that cause diseases. Some bacteria create colonies called biofilms that can coat surfaces, reducing their effectiveness–for example, inhibiting a leaf’s ability to photosynthesize. Living systems must have strategies for protecting from microbes that cause disease or become so numerous that they create an imbalance in the system. At the same time, living systems must continue living in harmony with other microbes. Some living systems kill microbes. Others repel without killing to reduce the chances that microbes will adapt to the lethal strategy and become resistant to it. For example, some pea seedlings exude a chemical that inhibits biofilm buildup.

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Protect From Fungi

Fungi–which include molds and mushrooms, amongst others–play important roles in every ecosystem, but can also create diseases in plants and animals. Fungi can rapidly reproduce, so living systems must fend them off early to avoid their spread and potential, physical harm. Living systems use both physical and chemical strategies to protect from fungi, and must ensure that these strategies don’t harm the threatened living system itself. For example, a pumpkin’s skin has antifungal proteins to prevent fungal growth without harming the pumpkin itself.

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Brochures

Patents

Apeel from Apeel Sciences is an edible coating for fresh fruits and vegetables that helps them last longer by slowing the ripening process.

Benefits

Reduced food spoilage
Reduced food waste
Resilient food systems

Applications

Food industry

UN Sustainable Development Goals Addressed

Goal 2: Zero Hunger
Goal 12: Responsible Production & Consumption

The Challenge

Up to 40% of the food grown goes to waste due to spoilage. This costs companies and individuals billions of dollars each year and wastes millions of pounds of food.

Innovation Details

Apeel™ protects fresh produce by forming a thin “peel” of edible plant material on the surface of the fruit, similar to the plant’s cuticle layer. This helps to slow down water loss and oxidation, the main factors that cause food spoilage.

An illustration of the cuticle layer of plants. Photo: Apeel Sciences.

Biological Model

Every fruit and vegetable has a peel on it to protect it from drying out and rotting. The top layer of the peel is called the cuticle layer, which keeps moisture in while allowing the plant to breathe without drying out. Peels are so important that every plant on land has one, from raspberries to roses.

See Related Content

close of photograph of green plant veins

Biological Strategy

Cutin Protects Edges From Cracking

Caro de Tres Hojas

Viscoelastic matrix (cutin) of plant cuticle protects fruit from cracking by fibrillar components capable of passive realignment when placed in tension.

water droplets sit on top of a waxy green leaf

Biological Strategy

Leaf Cuticle Allows Select Chemicals to Pass

Common ivy

The cuticle on the surface of leaves create a smart barrier by having selective permeability to both hydrophobic and hydrophillic molecules.

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