Yes! We are all about finding different methods to ensure that our produce lasts as long as possible (and is as tasty as possible).
The New York Times reports that there are whispers about a potential start-up launching in Southern California that will aim to keep fruits and veggies as fresh and delicious over time as possible, by trying to eliminate all of the nasty wax, gas and various other methods that growers tend to use to preserve the quality of our produce.
Called Apeel Sciences (so cute!), the start-up has reportedly developed a method that would allow them to use leaves, banana peels, stems and whatever other fresh plant-based materials that are left behind after produce has been picked or processed, to create edible barriers that you can't even see on fruits and vegetables.
Basically, if these barriers do their job, food waste is going to go way down, and so is the use of potentially harmful pesticides, which sounds alright to us. Additionally, these imperceptible barriers might be able to extend the life of our yummy foods by as much as five times, which means that the varieties of fruits and vegetables available are likely to increase! Can you imagine?
By the way, in case you aren't impressed, here's more: the technology is so advanced that Apeel could even deliver you a big bunch of bananas with a time estimate of when each fruit would ripen, all on different days.
The future is now, folks, and it is so cool!
"It takes 30 days to get blueberries grown in Chile to market in the United States, which means they have to be picked before they’re ripe and shipped under heavy refrigeration," James Rogers, the founder and chief executive of Apeel, told New York Times. "We can change that."
For now, New York Times reports that the Food and Drug Administration says that Edipeel, which is a brand name Apeel's products are sold under, is "generally recognized as safe," which means that while we wait for all of this to come to fruition, its products are safe and good to consume!