The Science of Making Fruits and Veggies Last Longer | Jenny Du | TED
It's a hard nut to crack: in order to prevent food waste, we rely on plastic packaging and refrigeration, which harm the environment. What if we could turn to nature to address these challenges? Engineer and chemist Jenny Du shares how a simple plant-based innovation — using the same elements found in fruit and vegetable peels — can extend the shelf life of produce, while also fighting food waste and spurring a healthier, more sustainable food system. (Recorded at TED2025 on April 10, 2025)
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Contributed by 刘嘉琪Transcript
- 00:04When you pick a piece of fruit off a tree,
- 00:06it's like a ticking time bomb.
- 00:09It's literally this living and breathing thing
- 00:12that's slowly cannibalizing its own stores of energy and nutrients,
- 00:16just trying to stay alive
- 00:18until it ultimately gets eaten by microbes
- 00:22or some other animal, like us.
- 00:24Have you ever wondered why that is
- 00:26and what could be done about it?
- 00:29My journey in trying to figure that out
- 00:31started in the spring of 2013.
- 00:34I'm finishing up my postdoctoral research in chemistry
- 00:37at the University of Santa Barbara, California.
- 00:40And all that really means is I’m a huge nerd
- 00:42and I've been in school for way too long.
- 00:45And I'm trying to figure out how to put all that training to meaningful use.
- 00:50So two of my lab mates, James Rogers and Louis Perez,
- 00:54invite me to dinner.
- 00:56But it turns out to be a pitch disguised as dinner,
- 01:00and they opened by totally flooring me with some staggering stats.
- 01:05A third of the food that we produce worldwide
- 01:09is lost or wasted before it ever has a chance to be eaten.
- 01:15For fresh fruits and vegetables,
- 01:17that number is a half.
- 01:19And waste is a problem at every single step of the supply chain.
- 01:25From the farm, trying to get it to market,
- 01:27in stores, restaurants and in our homes.
- 01:31And it's not just a waste of the food.
- 01:34It's a waste of the land,
- 01:37water, fertilizers, labor, energy, fuel,
- 01:41packaging and money
- 01:44out of farmers' and our pockets.
- 01:48If global food waste was a country,
- 01:51it'd be the third-highest emitter of greenhouse gases
- 01:55after China and the US.
- 01:58For decades, all around the world,
- 02:00we've relied heavily on a surprisingly small number of ways
- 02:04to help fruits and vegetables last longer after harvest.
- 02:08These have gotten us a really long way,
- 02:10but they also have their challenges.
- 02:14Refrigeration is a massive energy suck,
- 02:17a significant source of emissions,
- 02:20and it's expensive.
- 02:21It's unfortunately why a lot of places around the world
- 02:24don't have access to refrigeration.
- 02:27Designer pesticides aren't great
- 02:30for our long-term health or the environment.
- 02:33Waxes, some can be plant-based,
- 02:35but a lot of them are also animal-derived or petroleum-derived,
- 02:40and they help make produce look better
- 02:43but not really meaningfully extend their life and quality.
- 02:46And packaging,
- 02:48that's just adding to our problems
- 02:50with single-use plastics and microplastics.
- 02:53And then all of this leads
- 02:55to a pretty narrow set of fruits and vegetables
- 02:58that are available in stores today
- 03:00relative to the amazing diversity of what's really out there.
- 03:04And so it's really like the categories
- 03:07that can survive storage and transportation
- 03:11that are commonly available.
- 03:13And those aren't always the ones that taste best
- 03:16or have the highest density of nutrients.
- 03:19So my friends wanted to approach this differently.
- 03:23And we led first with some questions.
- 03:26How do plants protect themselves?
- 03:29Well, with a peel.
- 03:32Plants, just like us, have a skin or a peel,
- 03:35technically called the plant cuticle,
- 03:37and that helps to protect them from moisture loss,
- 03:40oxidation and infection.
- 03:44And what are those peels made of?
- 03:47Fatty acids, glycerides.
- 03:49That's what's the important part.
- 03:52And these are ingredients found universally in all plants.
- 03:57In the peel, pulp and seeds,
- 03:59and including in plants that we already eat.
- 04:03Different fruits have different shelf lives
- 04:05because of the thickness and arrangement of these materials in those peels.
- 04:10So the idea then is:
- 04:12Can we take these harmless, edible, plant-based ingredients,
- 04:16apply them in a thin layer
- 04:18on the surface of fresh fruits and vegetables
- 04:21to help reinforce the existing natural peel?
- 04:24And if you do that,
- 04:25can you help to retain peak flavor, texture and nutrients for longer
- 04:31without reliance on refrigeration,
- 04:34pesticides, waxes or plastics?
- 04:38And so that's what James, Lou and I,
- 04:41that's why we founded Apeel Sciences
- 04:43and ultimately headed to James's garage to try and figure out.
- 04:48We started first by partnering with a small local grower,
- 04:51and we tested the idea on this category you may not have heard of
- 04:54called finger limes.
- 04:56They are literally finger-shaped, and when you cut them open,
- 05:00the pulp is in the shape of beads, like caviar.
- 05:03They are delicious, and they’re super fragrant.
- 05:07But once they’re picked,
- 05:08that grower had maybe about seven days
- 05:11before their organic limes would start to dry out
- 05:13and the skin would start to change color.
- 05:15And that was even with refrigeration.
- 05:18So we took a test batch of material that we made
- 05:22using leftover tomato peels,
- 05:24since those are rich in these fatty acids and glycerides.
- 05:28We dipped those limes in a bowl of these ingredients in water
- 05:33and set them aside to dry.
- 05:36And then we waited.
- 05:39And we saw that we could add an extra week of freshness to these limes.
- 05:44And when we saw that for the first time,
- 05:47we were like, "Shut the front door!
- 05:49Oh my God, this might actually work."
- 05:52So we then went and wanted to apply this little bit of extra peel
- 05:57to all other kinds of fruits and vegetables.
- 06:00Bananas, avocados, limes,
- 06:03green beans, tomatoes, bell peppers,
- 06:06cucumbers, berries, like, you name it.
- 06:10And what we saw, amazed and quite frankly, still amazes us.
- 06:16This concept works for dozens of categories,
- 06:20things that need to ripen before you eat them,
- 06:23things that don't.
- 06:24Things that have edible peels,
- 06:26non-edible peels.
- 06:28We even saw that with protected blueberries,
- 06:30we could retain vitamin C levels at higher levels
- 06:34for longer than unprotected blueberries.
- 06:38And tomatoes could be harvested later,
- 06:41not when they were green and tasteless,
- 06:44but when they were red and actually ripe,
- 06:47and they'd still have enough time to get into your homes.
- 06:51And we love that it really takes so little material,
- 06:56the little bit of extra peel we add to an average avocado, for example,
- 07:00that's equivalent in weight to a 10th of a small raisin.
- 07:04And even though these materials are, of course, they're edible,
- 07:08you can wash them off by just rubbing under running water.
- 07:11We also, the more that we learned
- 07:13about the fresh produce supply chain today,
- 07:15we realized we could integrate into how these are processed
- 07:19in these packing houses before they're sent to grocery stores.
- 07:24So thinking about replacing a standard waxing step, for example.
- 07:29We've made good progress since those early days in the garage.
- 07:33We've established a supply chain for responsibly sourced,
- 07:38high-purity ingredients.
- 07:40We've demonstrated safety and effectiveness to regulators in the US,
- 07:44the European Union
- 07:46and more than 40 additional countries around the world.
- 07:49And while we're still relatively small and early in our journey,
- 07:52we have a presence in about 10 markets worldwide.
- 07:57What I'm most proud of, though,
- 07:58it's why we got into all of this in the first place.
- 08:02And that is that since 2021, when we started measuring,
- 08:06we've prevented 166 million pieces of produce from going to waste.
- 08:11In doing that,
- 08:12that's avoided the emissions of more than 29,000 metric tons
- 08:17of greenhouse gas emissions,
- 08:19which is equivalent to planting 485,000 trees
- 08:23and saved almost seven billion liters of water,
- 08:27or enough to fill 2,800 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
- 08:32(Applause)
- 08:33Thank you.
- 08:34(Applause)
- 08:40What we're also excited about
- 08:41is the opportunity to add a little extra peel
- 08:44to help small growers
- 08:46get their unique varieties of fruits and vegetables to market
- 08:49with more confidence.
- 08:50This is especially important in places that don't have widespread
- 08:55or reliable access to refrigeration,
- 08:58like with these regional mango varieties.
- 09:01This could mean that a greater diversity of fruits and vegetables
- 09:05could be more available to more people.
- 09:09The work, though, is far from done.
- 09:13We've unfortunately encountered food and agriculture companies
- 09:16that have a really hard time seeing past the food waste status quo.
- 09:21"Shrink," as it's called in the industry,
- 09:23it's just accepted as a normal part of doing business.
- 09:27And disappointingly, we’ve had some folks --
- 09:30producers, packers and retailers -- tell us,
- 09:33"Well, the waste bin is kind of my best friend.
- 09:37The more that people throw away,
- 09:39the more they have to come back and buy again."
- 09:42So let's just say that's not what we expected
- 09:45when we first approached them
- 09:47to talk about extending the life
- 09:49and quality of fresh products.
- 09:52But we can't change this thinking alone.
- 09:55And we're not a silver bullet to end food waste ourselves.
- 10:00But thankfully there are lots of start-ups, scale-ups, organizations
- 10:05and individuals all around the world
- 10:08working to transform this post-harvest space.
- 10:11And we're optimistic that our one small innovation,
- 10:15using common ingredients
- 10:17inspired by the ancient wisdom of plants,
- 10:20is playing its part and having an impact,
- 10:24reinventing the food system
- 10:26and helping to create abundance for all.
- 10:29Thanks so much.
- 10:30(Applause)
- 10:36Thank you.
- 10:38Latif Nasser: Incredible, thank you, Jenny.
- 10:40I feel like, when I buy avocados
- 10:44and then I bring them home,
- 10:45and then I blink and they are rotten.
- 10:48How long could you extend the shelf life of an avocado?
- 10:53Jenny Du: In your experience, maybe you have this, too,
- 10:56there's like a day, a day and a half
- 10:57when they're like, perfect.
- 10:59Like, avocado toast, cuttable, before you’re like,
- 11:02do I sacrifice them to guacamole?
- 11:04And so it takes that day and a half and extend it to four days.
- 11:07Maybe you're actually going to have a chance to use it
- 11:10before you throw it away.
- 11:11LN: So you're more than doubling.
- 11:13And when you're spraying things that don't have a shell,
- 11:17does it have a taste or a smell or anything?
- 11:19JD: No, they're very neutral.
- 11:21So no taste, no smell.
- 11:22You saw we used a little of it.
- 11:24It's like a strange thing we do around the office,
- 11:26which is like, eat the fruit, lick the surface, like, confirm that.
- 11:29But we've also done it with credible other institutions,
- 11:35like universities doing these blind taste tests with strawberries.
- 11:39And you can't tell that there's anything on them.
- 11:42LN: Amazing.
- 11:44Jenny Du, everybody.
- 11:45Thank you so much, Jenny.
- 11:47(Applause)