Track Freshness of Fruits

Why this challenge?

Consumers demand more and more fresh and healthy products. Fruits and vegetables look tasty and inviting on shelves provided they are fresh. However it does not take long for some of them to mature, making them less attractive to consumers.

Our Client, a Global Pulp and Paper Company, wanted to find an “smart” or “active” packaging technology that could be used to track temperature and ripeness and control the quality of fresh fruits and vegetables shipment, ultimately extending its shelf life and creating less waste.

Results

The global community responded with a wide variety of proposals for the Client to evaluate, hailing from regions including Asia, Europe and North America.

After further discussions with six Solution Providers, our Client entered into a deal with Bioastra, a Canadian smart-polymer company that developed a prototype intelligent and active technology.

Upon prototype evaluation, our Client soon realized that the technology would be applicable to a different field as well and extended its application to the transport of blood products.