You spend extra time at the supermarket selecting the perfect
apples, pears, tomatoes and lettuce only to throw half of them
away a few days later. But soon you’ll be able to prolong the
life of your produce with the help of the controlled-environment
pantry.
Similar to a refrigerator, the pantry is a new appliance being
developed by Jim Dooley, president of Silverbrook, Limited, in
Federal Way, Wash.
Scientists at the University of Georgia College of
Agricultural
and Environmental Sciences are working with Dooley under a Small
Business Initiative Research grant he received from the U.S.
Department
of Agriculture.
The Fridge Isn’t the Perfect
Place
“Right now, most consumers don’t have much choice when
it comes to storing their fruits and vegetables at home,”
said Stan Prussia, a CAES biological and agricultural engineer.
“Home refrigerators are OK for convenience. But all the
produce
is stored at the same temperature, and that’s not good from a
quality point of view.”
UGA researchers say another downside to storing produce in
the refrigerator is the loss of flavor.
“You may be able to extend the shelf life by putting
produce
in the refrigerator, but you’re also sacrificing quality,”
said Rob Shewfelt, a UGA food scientist working on the pantry
project.
“Quality is the key,” Shewfelt said. “Take the
Belgians for example. They won’t sell chocolate that’s more than
7 days old because of the reduction in quality.”
The new controlled-environment pantry is designed so the
temperature
and humidity can be controlled precisely in separate drawers.
“A refrigerator has only one temperature, but products
require different temperatures for the best quality,”
Prussia
said. “Even if you could control the temperature in your
refrigerator, you couldn’t keep it the right temperature for all
your produce. The conditions needed don’t match what’s
available.”
Prussia says crops like green beans, squash and oranges need
higher temperatures than crops like peaches, raspberries and
strawberries.
Don’t Put Bananas Next to
Lettuce
Another plus to storing produce separately is the reduction
in gas exchange.
“Ethylene, a natural product that comes off bananas,
avocados
and cantaloupes, can be harmful to other crops like lettuce and
celery,” Prussia said.
But if produce is stored separately, this is no longer a
problem.
The controlled-environment pantry is about two years away from
being available to consumers. And then it will begin as an
upscale,
novelty product.
“It’ll be a lot like when automatic bread makers first
hit the market,” Shewfelt said. “They weren’t for
everyone
at first. But now just about everyone has one.”
Countertop Version
UGA scientists are also conducting research to support the
development of another Dooley product: the electronic fruit
bowl.
Like the larger pantry, the bowl will include temperature and
humidity controls, but will be small enough to sit on your
kitchen
countertop.
“Many times, produce is discarded because we forgot it
was in the bottom drawer of the refrigerator — out of sight,
out of mind,” Shewfelt said. “By putting them in this
bowl, they’re out where you can see them. Yet they’re still being
stored efficiently.”
Shewfelt says certain fruits, like peaches, plums and grapes,
could be put in the bowl together. But you wouldn’t want to add
bananas to the mix.
“Certain fruits would be compatible and certain ones
would
not,” he said. “But the main thing is they are where
you can see them, and this encourages more consumption.”
The overall goal of both devices is to help consumers keep
their produce at their standards of good quality. “When
people
buy good-quality produce, they want to keep good quality and eat
good quality,” Shewfelt said.
On the flip side, Shewfelt says mixing your produce can be
helpful at times.
“To speed the ripening of a peach, just put it in a brown
paper sack with a banana,” he said.
