Apeel, a way to solve food-wasting with investors like Oprah and Katy Perry2 min read
Roughly one-third of the food produced in the world for human consumption every year – approximately 1.3 billion tonnes – gets lost or wasted (source: Food and Agriculture Organization).
We spoke already about this problem in a previous post (read the full article).
Considering in detail the fresh food or – in general – the one easily perishable. Let’s take for example fruits. The process goes like this: first, a fruit dehydrates. Later, oxygen seeps in. Then, with the fruit weakened, mold invades. Eventually, our fruit turns to goop.
Rotting is unavoidable but wasting can be slowed down.
In fact, there are few companies in the world that challenge themselves to work with nature to find a solution. One of them is Apeel Sciences a company based in Goleta, California whose edible coating product Apeel can make avocados, citrus, and other types of fruit last twice as long as usual by using a tasteless edible coating made from plant materials.
Apeel found a way to use plants to keep produce fresher, longer, reduce food waste, and ensure an abundant future for our planet.
Inspired by nature’s strategy for preservation, Apeel Sciences Founder and CEO James Rogers and the Apeel Sciences team went to work building a barrier out of edible plant materials that would slow down the rate of spoilage.
Apeel Sciences was founded in 2012 with a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Today, Apeel Sciences has developed products for dozens of USDA Organic Certified and conventional produce categories, and the company works with partners ranging from smallholder farmers and local organic growers to the world’s largest food brands to make better quality, more sustainable produce possible.
And with the disruption caused by COVID-19 on the supply chain, slowing down the perishable process and extending the life of fresh products (such as fruits and vegetables) can be a huge benefit in terms of sustainability impacts.
Recently the company raised a new $ 250 million round for a total of $360.1 million, according to Crunchbase data.
Amongst Apeel’s investors, there are also Oprah Winfrey and Katy Perry.
Source: Apeel Sciences website
Featured image by Jill Wellington from Pixabay
