Automatic Food Preservation in the Retail Environment

Studies show that the average household in the United States wastes over $1,866 in food per year, or more than $1 per day for every person within the country. This translates to approximately 300 million tons of food waste entering US landfills each day. The proposed SBIR Phase I project shall investigate the effectiveness and commercial merits of the GreenLifeTech™ system at the retail level of the supply chain. The patent pending GreenLifeTech™ system removes oxygen from a product storage vessel, lowering concentrations to those optimal for storage. This is done in a simple, inexpensive and efficient manner and does not require the creation of a vacuum within the container. We propose a research study to address multiple aspects of this product integration. The GreenLifeTech™ team envisions a stand alone system, to be deployed at the retail level, along with plastic containers and bags which will be recyclable. The consumer will simply be able to choose their fresh produce, place it in the storage vessel of their choice, and attach the vessel to the GreenLifeTech™ system. This system will automatically create the engineered storage environment most conducive for produce longevity, requiring little to no effort. This study will then explore the effectiveness of our engineered environment on different types of agricultural commodities, with the goal of developing a data catalog of optimal conditions for numerous types of product. Produce ripeness will be measured as a function of ethylene production, measured using a gas meter, and firmness, which will be measured using a penetrometer. We will also study the effects of temperature, relative humidity, and other atmospheric properties during the testing portion of this project. Additionally, we aim to study the effectiveness of Ozone (O3) production within these containers to reduce bacterial growth. This shall be completed using a seperate, patent pending process. The overall goal of this research endeavour will be to create a streamlined and efficient system for produce storage from the retail point of sale to consumption. We at GreenLifeTech™ believe that this is of the utmost importance, as we continue to stretch the world’s agricultural resources to their absolute limits. These milestones are crucial to the commercialization of our product at the retail level, so we can help to reduce food wastage worldwide. Furthermore, we fully anticipate the opportunity to utilize that core technology globally for a number of broader societal applications.