Signal Fruit-waste biopolymers that multiply produce shelf life in pilots

Summary

Packaging made from biopolymers recovered from fruit peel and other food waste is showing that waste can be turned into a tool for keeping produce fresh. The materials involved are chitosan, pectin and starch, which can form biodegradable packaging with antimicrobial properties. In pilot trials the packaging tripled the shelf life of guava, doubled it for pears and kept mangoes fresh for up to 25 days. The relevance is scale, because about 1.2 billion tonnes of food are wasted worldwide each year and fruit makes up 35% of that total. The approach could therefore reduce spoilage while also replacing conventional packaging with a more sustainable alternative.