New packaging could keep fruit and vegetables fresher for days longer

Type of practice Reduce

Name of practice New packaging could keep fruit and vegetables fresher for days longer

Name of main actor Tesco

Type of actor(s) Company

Location United Kingdom

Stage of implementation Packaging, Processing

Year of implementation 2013

What was/is being done? Shoppers might soon be able to keep their fruit and vegetables fresher for days longer thanks to revolutionary packaging that is being trialed by Tesco, a famous UK grocery chain. The packaging contains a strip coated with a natural product that is able to absorb ethylene, the hormone that causes fruit to ripen and then turn moldy. Initial trials have been a success and suggest that the device could be used across a wide range of fruit and vegetables, at no added cost to shoppers. Tesco ambient salad and avocado technologist Steve Deeble said: “The packaging is a major breakthrough in the fight to combat food waste and could save the fresh produce industry tens of millions of pounds each year. But it will also mean that shoppers will be able to keep fruit and vegetables for longer without feeling pressured to eat them within days of buying them.” The packaging is being trialed with tomatoes and avocados, which have some of the highest wastage within the industry.

Outcomes and impacts Tesco estimates the new packaging could lead to a potential wastage saving of 1.6 million packs of tomatoes and 350 000 packs of avocados. The ethylene-absorbing strip, which sits inside the packaging, measures just 8 cm by 4.5 cm and will not affect its recyclability. Considering that a pack of tomatoes or avocadoes weighs on average 500 g, and using the global European vegetable average from food wastage at distribution level, the FWF model suggests that Europe’s potential, through annual savings of 800 tonnes of tomatoes and 175 tonnes of avocadoes, is almost 3 000 tCO2 eq and 33 000 m3 of water.