How to extend the shelf life of fruits and vegetables
There are numerous strategies to decrease the amount of fruit and vegetables that spoil before they reach our plates, from cutting-edge coatings to enhancing the condition of the roads.
Since the first time we had more food than we could eat at once, humans have had to deal with this issue. How do you preserve food when there is plenty of it?
THE WASTE IS WHERE?
Food waste is largely the fault of consumers.
Approximately 17% of the produce accessible to consumers is wasted, albeit this figure also includes.
For our predecessors, the issue of rotting apples and mouldering grain may have been one of season-to-season survival. Even if the stakes have changed considerably, today’s challenges in minimising food waste are still significant. About ten times more greenhouse gas emissions from wasted food are produced globally than in the UK.
The majority of this waste comes from wasted meat because it normally requires much more energy to manufacture than plant-based diets. If you discard 100g of steak, you might have wasted the equivalent of 10kg of CO2. Fruits and vegetables, however, account for the largest bulk of food waste each year—roughly half a billion tonnes. Fruits like oranges and
Many of the methods currently available to companies to reduce food waste include the use of plastics and chemicals. According to a 2022 Swiss study, the advantages of plastic packaging for cucumbers to the environment outweigh its drawbacks by a factor of roughly five. Meanwhile, numerous bacteria on fresh food have
However, consumers are avoiding plastics and chemical processing. Chlorination may result in the creation of chemicals that are thought to be carcinogenic; these compounds may either remain on the produce after industrial processing of fruits and vegetables or they may wind up in drinking water.
Many of us feel bad about the amount of plastic we consume. David McClements, a food scientist at the University of Massachusetts, claims that there is currently
