You swore to yourself when you put thoseavocadosin the trough on the kitchen counter that you would corrode them before they go bad . Then you decease to the bathroom , derive back seven second subsequently , and the antecedently beautiful yield had turn into dried , shrivel little leathery - skinned chunk of rot .

You did n’t make the rule of rot , you ’ve just lessen dupe to them . You and everybody else : about a third of all the food for thought that express up in U.S. grocery stores each year go to waste — that ’s 1.3 billion tons ( 1.1 metric scores ) annually . It ’s inglorious .

ButApeel , a California - found companybacked by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation , among others , has developed a vegetable - based powder that can be applied to the pelt of fruits and vegetables to keep them from spoiling so promptly . Because the introduction of oxygen is what allow bacteria to go brainsick on the delicious insides of your pear or strawberry or capsicum pepper plant , Apeelis applied to the exterior of produce straight off after harvest to keep moisture in spite of appearance and oxygen out . ship to farmers and provider as a gunpowder , Apeel is mixed with water and spray on the aerofoil of harvested produce , pull up stakes behind a slight stratum of tasteless plant life material that naturally slows water loss and oxidation , which are the independent cause of spoilage .

produce, waste

fruit and vegetable are not without their own natural protection . The fruit of every industrial plant has a natural roadblock — the cuticle — that allows it to breathe while keeping moisture in . Apeel claims its product is colorless , flavorless and effective because it ’s made of the same nub as the natural shield — it ’s just an additional layer of shelter . It has also been deemed good by theU.S. Food and Drug Administration ( FDA ) .

Apeel says it can treble or even quadruple the ledge living of fruits and vegetables , which is a good prospect for contain the unbelievable amount of solid food waste loaded countries mother every day . It might also be subservient in feed people in country that do n’t have the substructure to get fruits and vegetable to those who require them before they go bad . Worldwide , one in ninepeople go to bed on an empty stomach each Nox , and Apeel is hoping to facilitate both increase the profit margins of produce company selling their fruits and veggies in supermarkets , and also make produce last longer in places where food is scarce .