Every year, 33% of all food produced globally is wasted or lost during production or consumption. In the UK alone, annual waste is 15 mt (worth over £19 bn) of which 75% could have been avoided. Across Europe 27% of all fruit & vegetables are lost or wasted between processing & consumption (FAO). Current UK food waste of 12 mt is associated with the production of 20 mt of greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, uneaten food occupies almost 1.4 billion hectares of land (~30% of the world’s agricultural land) and around 550 billion m3 of water is wasted on a global scale from fruit & veg which are never consumed (FAO). As the EC expects food waste to climb from 90 mtpa to 126 mt by 2020, across Europe, there is clearly a need to develop new technologies which are capable of prolonging the life of perishable produce. One way of prolonging the life of fresh fruit & vegetable produce is through ethylene scavenging. Ethylene is a plant hormone responsible for premature ripening, salad wilting and colour loss. Our aim is to adapt our patented ethylene scavenging agent for use as a self-adhesive label to attach onto fruit packs/fruit punnets. It is envisaged the benefits of this new solution will be: • Extend shelf life by at least 2 days; • 50% reduction in fruit waste due to extended shelf life – reducing biowaste by 24 thousand tonnes per annum (ktpa) & reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 36 ktpa; potential to reduce this by up to 2.4 million tonnes; • Completely safe for food application; • Generate £57 million in revenue for users of the technology; • Create a total of up to 660 jobs throughout the fresh produce industry

The UK demand for fresh cut flowers is rising steadily each year, with the market currently worth £2.5 billion p.a. Maintaining low temperatures is crucial for restricting the respiration rate of the cut flowers and consequently reducing premature death. However, upon their arrival to retailers, the flowers are allowed to warm to ambient temperature. This quickly increases the respiration rate, reducing flower shelf & vase life. In addition, as cut flowers are placed in water upon arrival at the retailers, life span is further reduced as bacteria harboured in flower water can cause premature death through a number of mechanisms; bacterial presence also represents a health & safety issue for fruits & vegetables kept nearby. Another key factor crucial to the longevity of the bouquet is ethylene; which can have a number of undesirable effects on cut flowers such as flower/petal drop, leaf yellowing & premature death. Our objective is to develop our novel active packaging film for the floral industry which will extend the longevity of cut flowers throughout the supply chain. It is envisaged that our new delivery system will: • Extend life of cut flowers ‘at store & home’ by 100%, from 5 to 10 days (shared by consumer & retailer) • Reduce pre-sale flower waste from retailers & wholesalers by 50% (from 10% to 5% of throughput) • Increase customer satisfaction due to the longer life ‘in home’ of purchased bouquets

Ethylene management is fundamental to maintaining post-harvest quality of fresh produce. Effective technologies can deliver a staggering 50% reduction in such waste, but the cost of such technologies limits their uptake. We aim to developed an ethylene management product, modifying packaging film to incorporate an active ethylene scavenger as a functional surface coating.