New Label Shows When Fruit Is Ripe

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New Label Shows When Fruit Is Ripe

Posted by timothy on Wednesday December 3, 2003 @04:52AM from the it's-so-mellow dept.

Dekaner writes "New Scientist has an article about a new 'smart' label developed in New Zealand changes color as fruit inside the package with it ripens. The label is designed to stop customers squeezing the fruit to tell if it is ripe enough to eat. The first packages to be tested contain pears, which need to be soft before they are eaten. If the labels prove effective with pears, the research institute in New Zealand will develop versions that work with kiwi fruit, avocados and melons."

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hm... by FinestLittleSpace · 2003-12-03 04:55 · Score: 2, Interesting

this is actually a pretty wicked invention, but I don't always buy ripened fruit.... often i like to get slightly unripened fruit, or over ripe fruit.... so this is good for joe bloggs who wants to eat his/her fruit that day, but for people who like to span out food over a week, it lacks any real long term use.
1. Re:hm... by Anonymous Coward · 2003-12-03 04:59 · Score: 1, Insightful
  
  this is actually a pretty wicked invention, but I don't always buy ripened fruit.... often i like to get slightly unripened fruit, or over ripe fruit.... so this is good for joe bloggs who wants to eat his/her fruit that day, but for people who like to span out food over a week, it lacks any real long term use.
  
  Sure it does. Now you can pass over fruit that says it's already ripe.
2. Re:hm... by FinestLittleSpace · 2003-12-03 05:04 · Score: 1
  
  Sure, here you go. I'll give you lessons on how to tell if it's ripe if you like?>
3. Re:hm... by bananahammock · 2003-12-03 19:08 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  This would also depend on what kind of fruit you purchase, 'cause as most would know, not all fruit ripen after picking.
  
  For example, fruits which will ripen at room temperature AFTER picking:
  
  1. Golden Delicious and Gravenstein Apples only
  2. Avocados
  3. Apricots
  4. Bananas
  5. Guava
  6. Mangoes
  7. Papaya
  8. Pears
  9. Persimmons
  10. Pineapples
  11. Plums
  12. Pomegranates
  13. Cactus fruit
  
  The following fruits will not ripen at room temperature AFTER picking:
  
  1. All Apples (except the Golden Delicious and Gravenstein)
  2. All Berries
  3. Cherries
  4. Citrus fruit
  5. Figs
  6. Grapes
  7. Melons
  8. Nectarines
  9. Peaches
4. Re:hm... by allism · 2003-12-04 07:11 · Score: 1
  
  You can ripen a peach by putting it in a paper bag with an unripe banana. The gases the banana emits ripen the peach.
  
  Bananas will ripen faster in a paper bag than not.
  
  --
  Denver Isuzu Suzuki
Squeeze Harder by Anonymous Coward · 2003-12-03 04:58 · Score: 1, Funny

Thats not going to stop people from squeezing even harder to ripen the damn thing.
1. Re:Squeeze Harder by Anonymous Coward · 2003-12-03 07:33 · Score: 0
  
  They can't do this! This puts a monkey ranch on my well honed grocery pickup lines. Even worse how will I show the ladies my ass and tits squeezing skills?
perhaps... by mOoZik · 2003-12-03 04:58 · Score: 5, Interesting

So now instead of covering the fruits in wax or other substances to make them appear more attractive, they'll simply forge the labels to feign ripeness.

--
A blog like any other.
One Small Problem... by Sunlighter · 2003-12-03 05:01 · Score: 2, Insightful

Doesn't the fruit itself change color as it ripens?

--
Sunlit World Scheme. Weird and different.
1. Re:One Small Problem... by dev0n · 2003-12-03 05:16 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Some do, yes.. others do not. Pears, for example. Or kiwis. Or mangos. Or papaya. Or melons.
  
  Bananas are just about the only fruit I can think of that you can tell accurately tell ripeness based on color. There's probably more than that, but my point is that color is not a good indication of ripeness for most fruits. :)
2. Re:One Small Problem... by Drunken_Jackass · 2003-12-03 05:17 · Score: 1
  
  Maybe in nature, but with produce that's picked before it's ripe in order to better facilitate shipping, then pumped with ethylene to mature on the spot. It's hard to tell.
  
  --
  There are 01 types of people in this world. Those that understand binary, and me.
3. Re:One Small Problem... by DerekLyons · 2003-12-03 06:02 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Doesn't the fruit itself change color as it ripens?
  Yes, but the processes run in parallel and are asynchronous. (A fruit may reach full color, but not be fully ripe, or it may be fully ripe, but not fully colored.) Commercial fruit growers/packers take advantage of this by exposing the fruit to gases that speed color changes, even when the actual ripening is far from complete. This makes it cheaper for them, as they can pick whole trees at once, rather than fruit-by-fruit, and unripe fruit is less likely to be damaged in transit. However, since very few fruits actually ripen off of the tree, the consumer gets something that looks like a real ripe fruit, but is actually anything but.
4. Re:One Small Problem... by Verne · 2003-12-03 08:32 · Score: 1
  
  kiwiFRUIT you silly american.
  
  do you call grapefruit grapes? do you call blackberries blacks? or oranges oras? no.
  
  besides, a kiwi is a small flightless bird which is an endangered species, and our national symbol.
  
  --
  
  There are only two things in this world that smell like fish. And one of them's fish...
5. Re:One Small Problem... by dev0n · 2003-12-03 10:03 · Score: 1
  
  I'm a silly Canadian, thank you. :)
  
  My apologies for the slip.. I actually thought that calling them kiwifruit was the wrong way to do it, and intentionally left the fruit bit off. I'll use dictionary.com next time I have a moment of confusion. :)
6. Re:One Small Problem... by Anonymous Coward · 2003-12-03 10:39 · Score: 0
  
  As a Canadian I will say I almost never hear people call it Kiwi Fruit.
  
  You stopped making sense around the "oras" part. Do you call carrots carrot-root? Bananas banana-fruit?
  
  Just for your comment I'm going to shine my boots with Kiwi-brand leather conditioner and polish.
7. Re:One Small Problem... by gardyloo · 2003-12-04 10:25 · Score: 1
  
  That's NORTH American, thank you very much.
mmmmm by Anonymous Coward · 2003-12-03 05:01 · Score: 1, Funny

Nice melons.
I have something similar by Micro$will · 2003-12-03 05:05 · Score: 0, Offtopic

...except it's built into my underpants. When it's time to change them, they turn brown and yellow.
1. Re:I have something similar by Anonymous Coward · 2003-12-03 14:58 · Score: 0
  
  Clowns. It's a fucking joke. Laugh.
Good idea... by Anonymous Coward · 2003-12-03 05:07 · Score: 0

Go around slapping THIS IS RIPE labels on everything...
But by EdMack · 2003-12-03 05:12 · Score: 1

What if when walking down the isles I prefer to squeeze and pinch the fruits?

--
puts ("Python r0cks\n");
1. Re:But by lacheur · 2003-12-04 09:32 · Score: 1
  
  Then you might have to deal with the indignant slaps.
Nature did it already by AtariAmarok · 2003-12-03 05:13 · Score: 4, Funny

There is already a label that appears on fruit when it is ripe. It is called a fruitfly.

--
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
1. Re:Nature did it already by Anonymous Coward · 2003-12-03 08:52 · Score: 0
  
  Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a bananana.
that's a good idea by theMerovingian · 2003-12-03 05:20 · Score: 4, Interesting

And not too hard to implement. You would need a substance that changes color in the presence of ethylene (the plant hormone that encourages ripening).

I am guessing that they are putting some chlorophyll (a simple sugar produced by most plants/green algae) onto a sticker. Ethylene causes the sugar to break down, changing chlorophyll (the reason plants are green) to some other simpler sugar (which would show a different color).

--
"If you think you have things under control, you're not going fast enough." --Mario Andretti
1. Re:that's a good idea by grondu · 2003-12-03 06:08 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  chlorophyll (a simple sugar
  
  Chlorophyll is not a sugar. It is a porphyrin derivative called a chlorin. Here is the structure.
  
  --
  I'm the urban spaceman babe, but here comes the twist... I don't exist
2. Re:that's a good idea by Anonymous Coward · 2003-12-03 08:16 · Score: 0
  
  Oops, you got me. It's been awhile since botany class!
Just cant see this being a hit with certain people by hookedup · 2003-12-03 05:35 · Score: 4, Insightful

At least for a couple more years anyway....

When I go for groceries, and the wife has asked me to pick up some sort of vegetables/fruits, this little sticker would be a blessing. Now say if my mother/grandmother were to go, i'm sure she would disregard the sticker, and squeeze the fruit regardless, because that's what they've been doing for years and years of cooking. For our 'packaged food is better food' generation, this may work, but for the older 'cook from scratch' generation, I just cant see it being a big hit.
melons by nycsubway · 2003-12-03 05:49 · Score: 3, Funny

You should always be able to squeeze melons. Theres nothing wrong with squeezing them, you need to be able to tell if it's firm but soft. Too soft isn't good.

A label will never be able to replace the feel of squeezing a melon.
_____________________________________

--
http://github.com/gbook/nidb
1. Re:melons by Anonymous Coward · 2003-12-03 06:53 · Score: 1, Funny
  
  You should always be able to squeeze melons. Theres nothing wrong with squeezing them, you need to be able to tell if it's firm but soft. Too soft isn't good.
  
  I tried explaining this to the wife, but first she insisted she had a headache, then slapped me for suggesting they were too saggy.
eh... by Anonymous Coward · 2003-12-03 06:12 · Score: 0

is anyone else getting a sense sexually suggestive connotations?
Re:Just cant see this being a hit with certain peo by Anonymous Coward · 2003-12-03 06:13 · Score: 0

Speak for yourself. My wife and I will both still be touching and smelling the fruit. Packaged food sucks.
Stickers on fruit suck. by The_Terminalator · 2003-12-03 06:20 · Score: 4, Insightful

I think this is a response to consumer complaints regarding the current practice of stickering fruit with its product code. I can't ever seem to get those stickers off without bruising the fruit.

Years ago a friend of mine was moving up from bag boy to checker at a supermarket, he had to memorize all the codes for fruits and vegtables and pass a test. Now a checker reads the code off a sticker, shifting the burden to the consumer.

I don't think the color change adds enough value to balance the annoyance of removing a sticker from every piece of fruit you buy.
1. Re:Stickers on fruit suck. by Anonymous Coward · 2003-12-03 11:28 · Score: 0
  
  Years ago a friend of mine was moving up from bag boy to checker at a supermarket, he had to memorize all the codes for fruits and vegtables and pass a test. Now a checker reads the code off a sticker, shifting the burden to the consumer.
  Actually, the best system I've seen shifted the burden very much onto the customer.
  In Switzerland, there is a scale in the produce department - you pick out your fruit/vegatables, place them in a bag, place the bag on the scale, and press in the code. Out comes the sticker which lists the item, weight and price, which you then stick to the outside of the bag.
  The shopper is expected to do this themselves- and the checkers get very miffed if you don't.
  I was only in Switzerland for a few months, and have been away for years, but I *still* find myself looking for the scale when I shop. I can't count the number of times the checker in my local grocery has incorrectly entered the onion/orange/apple/lettice type, or looked at some vegatable and had to ask me "what is this?" (It's a turnip, you undereducated dolt.)
Re:Just cant see this being a hit with certain peo by li99sh79 · 2003-12-03 06:26 · Score: 1

When I go for groceries, and the wife has asked me to pick up some sort of vegetables/fruits, this little sticker would be a blessing. Now say if my mother/grandmother were to go, i'm sure she would disregard the sticker, and squeeze the fruit regardless, because that's what they've been doing for years and years of cooking. For our 'packaged food is better food' generation, this may work, but for the older 'cook from scratch' generation, I just cant see it being a big hit.
Not to mention that you feel more like a true gourmet if you handpick your produce...from the bins in the supermarket. Well we can't all shop in open-air markets on the coast of France
-sam

--
I was just here, where did I go?
They're approaching this from the wrong direction by Strange+Ranger · 2003-12-03 07:00 · Score: 5, Insightful

Does the label also tell us when the fruit is over ripe and too squishy to eat? That's the biggest reason I squeeze produce, I'm looking for rottenness, bruises and damage. If it's not ripe enough no big deal, I'll set it on my window sill until it is ripe. But getting a squishy piece of rotten fruit I think is what most people are trying to avoid.

For the most part grocery stores don't have a problem with getting produce to market too early. More the opposite, when the produce is too old and it pains them to throw it out at a loss.

Unfortunately something tells me that stores wouldn't be very interested in a sticker that turned into a Mr. Yuck when the fruit went bad.

--

Operator, give me the number for 911!
A few different ways to tell this joke... by NickFusion · 2003-12-03 07:44 · Score: 1

-You can have those ripe melons when you pry them from my cold, dead fingers.

-Stickers indicate when melons are at their peak...tassles extra.

-Sciences frees us from burden of squeezing ripe melons, still no cure for cancer (nods to Fark)

-Nice stickers, but how do you get Natalie Portman to wear them?

-But how do you see the stickers under the sweater?

Did I miss any...hope not. I'd hate to think this melon thread hadn't been thouroughly milked.

Slashdot: Your home for single-entendre.

--
What were you expecting?
1. Re:A few different ways to tell this joke... by Anonymous Coward · 2003-12-06 09:33 · Score: 0
  
  outlaw melon squeezing, and only outlaws will squeeze melons
Re:Just cant see this being a hit with certain peo by Red+Rocket · 2003-12-03 07:53 · Score: 4, Funny

...but for the older 'cook from scratch' generation, I just cant see it being a big hit.

Don't worry. The new Medicare bill will take care of those trouble-makers.

--
- Hail to our fearless misleader! Fool speed ahead!
Re:They're approaching this from the wrong directi by Anonymous Coward · 2003-12-03 08:06 · Score: 0

That depends how you look at the label. Many things I would never buy ripe, because they get mashed if they are ripe at the store. So the label is prefect. You avoid the ripe ones in the store, then keep it on the counter until the label says ripe.
I'd still always touch and smell the food, but the label would save time scanning a bin for something at the stage I want to buy it.
Re:They're approaching this from the wrong directi by Alizarin+Erythrosin · 2003-12-03 08:09 · Score: 1

I hate bruised fruit. And sometimes it's really hard to tell by only looking at it if it is or not (case in point, bananas). I never buy an apple without first "feeling it up", so to speak.

This won't stop me, although for some things like peaches, I wouldn't mind it, because I like my peaches slightly crisp, and would learn to look for the non-ripe-showing stickers.

--
There are only 10 kinds of people in this world... those who understand binary and those who don't
This Will Only Be A Hit by Mark_MF-WN · 2003-12-03 08:50 · Score: 1

This will only be a hit among stupid people. Smart people will realize that the information conveyed by the labels will be, for the most part, outright fabrications. Fruit producers don't want you to know if fruit is ripe. They want you to buy unripe fruit and think it's ripe. This will just be another way to delude people.
Re:Just cant see this being a hit with certain peo by Dolohov · 2003-12-03 09:40 · Score: 1

Yeah, but in thirty years most of the 'cook from scratch' generation will be dead or sucking food through a straw. The only people left will be the 'packaged food is better' generation plus a few holdouts.
Squeezing the fruit ?? by Anonymous Coward · 2003-12-03 10:57 · Score: 0

Just how many costumers have squeezed each of my fruits by the time I bring them home?

That's desgusting, I'm switching to breast milk. Oh wait..
Re:Just cant see this being a hit with certain peo by Eagle7 · 2003-12-03 11:06 · Score: 2, Insightful

Not so... Food Network is popular with more than just old farts (I'm 25, was taught to cook by my Mom & Grandmother, and love to cook).

I wouldn't buy fruit or veggies without touching them. I check apples for firmness, smell carrots, sueeze and smell peppers, taste the end of celery, wiggle the stems of artichokes, etc. That's just how a smart consumer/cook buys produce.

There are always going to be smart consumers wanting to "kick the tires" - be it a car or a fruit that they are buying. That's not something that passes along with a generation.

--
_sig_ is away
Re:Just cant see this being a hit with certain peo by hurtstotouchfire · 2003-12-03 11:16 · Score: 3, Funny

I wouldn't buy fruit or veggies without touching them. I check apples for firmness, smell carrots, sueeze and smell peppers, taste the end of celery, wiggle the stems of artichokes, etc. That's just how a smart consumer/cook buys produce.
That's disturbing. Now not only do I know that my food has been sniffed and squeezed (or licked apparently in the case of celery), but that description in general was horrifying reminiscent of foreplay.
Interesting Enough.... by bored_SuSE_user · 2003-12-03 11:58 · Score: 2, Funny

Eddie Izzard made a comment about pears: " And pears can fuck off too. 'Cause they're gorgeous little beasts but they're ripe for a half an hour...and you're never there!"

--
Bored? http://www.dodgybloke.co.uk
Pears need to be soft? by Dahan · 2003-12-03 13:46 · Score: 1

Since pears need to soften before they achieve their best flavour ...
They do? I prefer my pears hard and crispy. At least Bosc, Anjou, and Asian pears taste fine to me while still hard.
Only used for expensive export produce... by Anonymous Coward · 2003-12-03 15:09 · Score: 0

Being from NZ and having seen the news item, these are only going to be used for the top-of-the-line export quality produce it seems...

They waste a whole lot of plastic packaging for each pack of 4 pieces of fruit, with the sticker on the inside of the clear plastic container lid.

Somehow, I'd feel better buying a large bag of fruit, and knowing I wasn't responsible for a huge amount of plastic packaging waste each time I wanted an apple...

(Although from a chemical point of view it _is_ a cool idea - I'm guessing it uses a colorimetric reaction involving ethylene gas?)
What? by Anonymous Coward · 2003-12-03 15:20 · Score: 0

That didn't even make sense.
And you ended your sentence with a PHP closing tag, leading me to believe that you are a PHP monkley. WHOA! Look at that typo! I said "monkley!" Ha ha! Good thing I'm drunk!
1. Re:What? by FinestLittleSpace · 2003-12-03 21:43 · Score: 1
  
  Made perfect sense, unless you're french and don't understand 2 english sentences or something.
  
  unintentional, but the mere fact that you noticed it was a php closing tag means you yourself dabble in the code of the devil.
  
  anyway, back on topic, i still think we should be allowed to squeeze all we like!
New Libel? so this is a SCO story? by complete+loony · 2003-12-03 18:37 · Score: 1

Well there certainly is an overly ripe smell coming from SCO's legal team ;)

--
09F91102 no, 455FE104 nope, F190A1E8 uh-uh, 7A5F8A09 that's not it, C87294CE no. Ah! 452F6E403CDF10714E41DFAA257D313F.
Please don't squeeza da bananas by Anonymous Coward · 2003-12-04 17:25 · Score: 0

Louis Prima wrote a popular song about this problem back in, probably the 30's. So when the label comes out, they've got a high-quality marketing song all ready for them.
Good! No excuse to bruise all the fruit! by WoTG · 2003-12-05 21:27 · Score: 1

Excellent! I hate walking up to a pile of fruit that's been picked over. Invariably, 50 people before me have picked up, squeezed, and tossed 50 fruit trying to find 2 or 3 that they actually think are "good enough" to buy. It seems to me that all that handling ends up destroying (i.e. too many little bruises and cuts) whatever remains by the time I get there. =)

Look before you touch! Buy what you touch! I realize these spiffly labels probably won't eliminate this little pet peeve of mine, but one can always hope...