Edible biopolymer composite coating to prolong the shelf life of perishable foods

More than one-third the volume of fresh fruits and vegetables produced within the US is lost before ever reaching the consumers. More fresh produce is wasted at the consumer level. The problem of post-harvest food loss and food waste with fresh produce continues to threaten food security while costing the US economy billions of dollars annually. Majority of this food ends up rotting in landfills. Reduction in post-harvest food loss will not just improve the livelihoods of fresh produce growers and distributors, but also the health of the US population, with greater availability of some of the healthiest food commodities. Atlas has developed a patent-pending edible coating technology that reduces food loss in fresh produce. The technology utilizes seaweed which is an abundant and inexpensive feedstock, reducing the onus of sourcing away from limited terrestrial sources of forestry, human food, and animal feed. The seaweed derived material forms a food-safe, edible, and invisible shield on fruits and vegetables, to reduce spoilage and prolong the shelf-life. We aim to test our coating technology in supply chains at the point of harvest with fresh produce growers to assess the value proposition of reducing food loss in real-time. This will also give us the opportunity to refine of our technology, as we work towards scaling it up by a factor of ten. We will first custom build a bigger prototype of our patent-pending sprayer, optimize performance within the lab to get the maximum value, and then deploy this technology at two produce growers' facilities. The value proposition of reducing food loss will be evaluated in real-time shelf-life studies reflecting commercial supply chain conditions.Through this early field-testing, Atlas aims to firstly scale-up the technology by one step, derisk the technological and business aspects, better understand the motivations and pain-points of their potential first customers, and use all of this learning to fine-tune their venture for commercialization. Reducing food loss and extending shelf-life of produce for just one medium-sized grower could translate to improved profitability in tens of thousands of dollars for the produce grower, lesser supply chain volatility for distributors and retailers relying on the grower, and lesser food loss and food waste at the retail and consumer levels. These results would pave the path for further technology and ingredient development, and commercial pilot trials with supply chains in one to two years after completion of this phase. Atlas develops its ingredients from seaweeds. Growth of our seaweed based ingredient venture will not just benefit produce growers but also directly incentivize New England seaweed farmers with greater demand, to improve their industry that is relatively underdeveloped, and improve their profitability.