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Ripeness Sticker Coming to Supermarket Fruit

Adam Weiss writes "A biosystems engineering professor has just announced a "ripeness sticker" for fruit. According to this AP article, grocers throw out thousands of bushels of fruit a year because it ripens too fast (1 bushel is about 9 U.S. gallons). Mark Riley's RediRipe stickers turn from white to blue as fruit ripens. The stickers react with ethylene gas, a chemical which is released as fruit or vegetables ripen. However the article says "there are still bugs to be worked out: The stickers do not change color to reflect an overripe or rotten piece of fruit. Also, not all fruit produces enough ethylene to be detected by the sticker.""

26 of 321 comments (clear)

  1. I'll just... by aniceyoungman · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...use the old-fashioned method, scratch and sniff.

    1. Re:I'll just... by MyNameIsFred · · Score: 2, Funny

      I prefer a wine-tasting approach. Take a bite, swirl it around in my mouth, and spit it on the floor. Although my family does complain about the teeth marks on all our produce.

  2. Re:Finally something I know about! by Sargeant+Slaughter · · Score: 4, Funny

    Please don't wreck me for the formatting, I forgot how anal /. is... God, it's like a bunch of linux nerds run this place!

    --
    I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand. -Confucius
  3. Re:Metric by benna · · Score: 3, Funny

    1 lot = 12.8 grams, but unfortunately this is a measure of mass, not volume.

    --
    "It is not how things are in the world that is mystical, but that it exists." -Ludwig Wittgenstein
  4. Re:Finally something I know about! by jrockway · · Score: 1, Funny

    > God, it's like a bunch of linux nerds run this place!

    I, for one, welcome our Linux nerd overlords!

    --
    My other car is first.
  5. Re:Metric by Lazbien · · Score: 3, Funny

    The metric system is the tool of the devil! (Slash the members of the Commonwealth.)

    I'm more concerned about how many hogsheads to the bushel. Now that I know I can get 6.77 hogshead to the bushel, I understand.

  6. I wonder... by aurifex · · Score: 1, Funny

    I wonder how long it will take before some kid sticks one to his forehead to try to see if he's "ripe" or not. :P

  7. Re:Pears by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    I only squeeze melons, but I got banned from the supermarket the last time I did THAT in public.

  8. A more important problem by QuantumFTL · · Score: 1, Funny

    Perhaps this technology could be applied to detecting staleness of online technology news on specific punctuationally named websites, as a further benefit to humanity.

  9. An idea.. by metushelach · · Score: 3, Funny

    A small modification of these stickers (e.g. amount of alcohol in blood) would make them very suitable for blind dates.

  10. Re:What about nearby fruit? by OuroborosCobra · · Score: 2, Funny

    Here is just a quick idea, but maybe, just maybe, the scientists who designed this thing actually know what they are doing more than we do, and have already thought of that. Just maybe all that work they did for their big degrees and Ph.D.s makes them more knowledgeable in their field than the average slashdotter.

    I know, I am about to be told that "I'm new here" ;-)

  11. Re:Fudged? by ozmanjusri · · Score: 2, Funny
    The both displace O2 in tissues, so how's about half credit? =)

    Nah, you gave it a good try, so you get the credit AND you get to keep the extra O2. Just don't try to make my beer froth with that CO of yours.

    --
    "I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
  12. Re:Metric by Basehart · · Score: 3, Funny

    Best way is not to think about how many Bushells equals a Quart Etc., instead think about having peeling yet another sticker off your food before you can eat it.

    How about a ripeness sticker that flips into an alternate universe where people like stickers on their fruit as soon as it senses my mouth getting near!!

  13. Re:Thanks for the conversion by clickety6 · · Score: 2, Funny

    why would you measure fruit in gallons

    Leave those fruit out to ripen long enough and you'll get something you can easily measure in gallons... and WTFITS units...

    (WTFITS = What the F. Is That Stink? basd on a scale from 1 = cheap knock-off perfumes to 100 = skunk dead from terminal halitosislying in the hot sun for three days and sprayed with cheap knock-off perfume by a passing motorist ).

    --
    ----------------------------------- My Other Sig Is Hilarious -----------------------------------
  14. Re:Won't Work by ozmanjusri · · Score: 2, Funny
    And how *did* you lose the use of your nose?

    Stuck a pineapple up it.

    --
    "I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
  15. Teach your grandmother... by OpenSourced · · Score: 2, Funny

    Primates' brains are wonderful at determining the ripeness of fruit. They've got the color perception evolved (err, I mean designed) practically just for that. That's like using a dog to help you climb trees.

    --
    Rome taught me patience and assiduous application to detail. Virtues which temper the boldness of great, general views.
  16. Re: Metric by Black+Parrot · · Score: 2, Funny

    > You could have typed "bushels to liters" in Google and gotten the conversion in a few seconds.

    Or you could learn to use the archaic units we do.

    You'll be amazed at the feeling of superiority you get by being backwards deliberately!

    --
    Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
  17. a ripeness sticker? by conn3x · · Score: 3, Funny

    I know a few coworkers I could stick a "ripeness" sticker on...

  18. Re:Metric by Mikkeles · · Score: 3, Funny
    'I wish Google would do conversions for football fields ....'

    Is that Canadian football, U.S. football, soccer football, or Rugby football?

    --
    Great minds think alike; fools seldom differ.
  19. OR, you could put up pictures by 192939495969798999 · · Score: 3, Funny

    You could always put up pictures to help people with how to tell what ripe fruit of whatever variety looks/feels like. It's relatively easy with bananas, but you cant' squeeze tomatoes to tell if they're ripe. The only thing we need stickers for is mangoes, because no one in the world knows when a mango is ripe!

    --
    stuff |
  20. Re:Won't Work by SCPRedMage · · Score: 5, Funny
    You want a pineapple that is heavy for its weight
    WTF?
    --
    My sig can beat up your sig.
  21. Re:As long as they don't use hydrogen dioxide... by Anomylous+Howard · · Score: 2, Funny

    Yup. Hydrogen Dioxide is highly unstable at standard temperature and pressure and therefore relatively harmless. Dihydrogen Monoxide (DHMO) is the truely deadly stuff, and it's got an extremely long half life. Check out dhmo.org

  22. Do what now? by Rob+T+Firefly · · Score: 4, Funny
    The stickers do not change color to reflect an overripe or rotten piece of fruit.
    Luckily, the fruit itself still does. Do you really need science to tell you not to eat the dark brown apples or fuzzy green oranges?
  23. Re:Metric by cayenne8 · · Score: 2, Funny
    "And then, there is India."

    I believe that is Quickie-Mart English....

    :-)

    --
    Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
  24. Quagmire version by Kris+Warkentin · · Score: 4, Funny

    Need one of these for girls:

    "18 yet? Let me check the sticker....Giggaty giggity gig!"

    --

    In Soviet Russia, hot grits put YOU down THEIR pants.
  25. Re:Thanks for the conversion by njh · · Score: 2, Funny

    People don't still use angular degrees do they?! I thought the world at least agreed on radians for angles. What next? Base 10 for logarithms?