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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.""
It would have been friendly of the editors to provide a metric equivalent for the large percentage of their readership outside of the United States. Running GNU units on 1 bushel tells me that it is just over 35 liters.
Why do they measure fruit in bushels? It's simple: that's the traditional measurement in the US, and the article was written in the US for the US market.
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Interesting, in Sweden just a day ago a newspaper reported that they had tested fruits and vegetables sold in Sweden with a refractometer, and out of 120 tests on produce sold in different stores, 64 were poor and 56 average, not a single fruit or veggie were "good" or "exceptional".
The low Brix numbers measured indicate poor taste and nutrient levels, and are caused by too early harvesting, and speeding up growth with fertilizers and greenhouses (not enough time to accumulate nutrients from earth). Understandable, since this lowers risk for producers and allows them to ship long distances, for instance from New Zealand or Argentina. But consumers pay, because you need to eat more fruit and veg to get the beneficial effects, and they don't taste as well.
Note that this newspaper is very pro-trade, pro-globalization and generally rightwing.
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Anybody who buys fruit regularly can tell how ripe it is by touching it. I've been making a lot of smoothies this summer and I can pretty much tell what a banana, peach, or mango will taste like with a very gentle squeeze. I'm okay with tomatoes but it seems like they vary.. sometimes they are hard but ready to eat. (My girlfriend can explain.. just kidding).
And actually, I don't see how this sticker will reduce the amount fruit the grocers have to throw out.
SO I;m probably one of the only people that visists this site that actually was a "journeyman" produce guy and have dealt with ordering and throwing out massive quatities of produce for various stores (Vons, Henrys, and Bristol Farms). Any good produce manager already knows what he's got in his cooler and how ripe it is, without some sticker to mislead him. Sometimes different fruit give off different amounts of gas at the same ripeness level depending on where it was grown, how long in it was in cold storage, etc... Since produce is in the USA is constantly coming in from all over the world, I don't think these stickers would be very reliable. Also I don't think the stickers would help much with waste because buyers over order on purpose when they can get a good deal. Buyers and district managers will push the dept managers to order more as well to get it outta the warehouse before it goes bad too. A lot of the time, (unlike other grocery items) produce sales (5 grapefruit for a dollar etc...) are based on availability of particular crops at good prices. THe buyer will order a crapload, the chain puts 'em on sale and hope that the product sells before they go bad. Cold storage can make some produce items last surprisingly long (several months sometimes) but a LOT of the time stores end up throwing out tons of the stuff, totally wasteful, but hey thats capitalism! I think the only thing these stickers would be good for would be to inform customers that don't know when their fruit is ripe. However, the afformentioned problems would still arise and it is doubtful that they would be very reliable. I think this was mentioned in the article, but don't know for sure cause I don't have time to read it - typical /. style ;-)
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Actually, they use carbon monoxide for that.
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
We have had this in New Zealand for a while now, the product is Ripe Sense invented by scientists at Hort Research New Zealand.
I've seen this technology before. The fruit was pears and they were sold in fours in a clear plastic packaging. The packaging was square shaped with each pear sitting in a corner. The top was domed and on the inside of the packaging was the sticker. I believe the discovery channel had a piece about this last year.
Here is the video:
VIDEO
The gas is actually a ripening agent. Its function is to make all the fruit in the same vicinity ripen at about the same time. Want your bananas to ripen faster? Stick 'em in a bag. The bag holds in the gas, which concentrates, quickening and syncronizing the ripening.
Stick a fruit that's a bit riper in a crate? The others will start catching up, because of the gas released by the riper fruit.
One bad apple. . .
That's why they try not to do that when they pack 'em.
KFG
Here's a trick I learned about buying a pineapple: try to pull out a leaf. If it comes out easily and at the base of the leaf, it's ripe. Otherwise, it's not.
Enjoy sweet sweet pineapples!
m
Actually, the result of genetical engineering (or at least, good old selective breeding). Wikipedia says:
At one time, most canned and fresh pineapples were produced on Smooth Cayenne plants. Since about 2000, the most common fresh pineapple fruit found in U.S. and European supermarkets is a low-acid hybrid that was developed in Hawaii in the early 1970s.
Look for brand names like 'Del Monte Extra Sweet Pineapple Gold' and you know you have the sweet version.
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