English cucumbers – the long, seedless, thin-skinned type – are the symbol of compensation that has long plagued shoppers in the produce aisle. To protect their fragile exterior, each one is wrapped in two grams of plastic, the equivalent of five plastic straws.
Therein lies the dilemma: fruits and vegetables packaged in single-use plastic extend shelf life, but add to the massive amount of trash that ends up in landfills and the oceans. However, the alternative, producing without plastic, can mean more waste and food waste.
Now Apeel Sciences is ready to show that the clash between plastic and food waste is “a false choice,” says CEO James Rogers.
The startup, founded by Rogers in 2012 with a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, partnered with vegetable growers group Houweling’s Group to produce “plastic-free” English cucumbers that will be launched in more than 100 locations throughout Walmart. this month.
The cucumbers will be coated in an edible substance that Apeel has made from materials found in plants (think banana leaves), creating an invisible barrier that cannot be seen, felt or tasted. This layer prolongs the shelf life by keeping moisture inside the cucumber and preventing the entry of oxygen, two factors that lead to spoilage.
Rogers says Apeel has installed its equipment at the Houweling facility, where its product arrives in powder form before being reconstituted and applied to the product.
He believes that we are currently living in the “Plastic Age” of human development right now, but that we must and must “move into an era in which the materials we use are those that nature is already providing us with.”
In May, Apeel closed a $ 250 million funding round led by Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC, granting the coveted startup unicorn status with a valuation of more than $ 1 billion.
Apeel’s first product, avocados, is sold by companies like Kroger, but its cucumber launch with Walmart is its first partnership with America’s largest food vendor. Walmart sells nearly 25% of the fresh produce in the US country, says Rogers, making Apeel’s entry into the retailer “a major milestone” for the startup.
Rogers describes Apeel’s approach as essentially learning from lemons and oranges and their robust peels, and teaching those lessons to people like cucumbers. Early in his research for the company, Rogers, a materials scientist, wanted to understand why if he left a strawberry on the counter, it would turn into a puddle, while a lemon would remain unchanged. He discovered that the exterior of both was made up of the same cells, but the molecules were arranged differently.
Apeel takes that edible substance made from ubiquitous plant material and creates a solution in which the molecules are placed closer to those of a lemon after drying them into a product. Rogers says the formulation is different depending on the type of fruit or vegetable.
Trying to deceive, control, and outwit nature is the wrong strategy, Rogers argues. “We really don’t think you can beat nature,” he says. “The only way we are going to survive as a species is to partner with nature and create a solution that works according to the system we are a part of.”
