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.