Reducing global fresh produce waste by developing our innovative ethylene scavenger as a self-adhesive label

每年，全球生产的所有粮食中有33%在生产或消费过程中被浪费或损失。仅在英国，每年的垃圾就达1500万吨（价值超过190亿英镑），其中75%本可以避免。在整个欧洲，27%的水果和蔬菜在加工和消费之间丢失或浪费（粮农组织）。目前英国1200万吨的食物浪费与2000万吨的温室气体排放有关。此外，未食用的食物占用了近14亿公顷土地（约占世界农业用地的30%），全球范围内约5500亿立方米的水因从未食用的水果和蔬菜而浪费（粮农组织）。欧盟委员会预计，到2020年，整个欧洲的食物浪费将从每年9000万吨攀升至1.26亿吨，因此显然需要开发能够延长易腐农产品寿命的新技术。乙烯清除是延长新鲜果蔬产品寿命的一种方法。乙烯是一种植物激素，负责过早成熟，沙拉萎蔫和变色。我们的目标是适应我们的专利乙烯清除剂的使用，作为一个不干胶标签，附在水果包装/水果篮。预计这种新解决方案的好处将是：•将保质期延长至少2天；•由于保质期延长，水果浪费减少50% -每年减少2.4万吨生物废物和36万吨温室气体排放；可能减少高达240万吨；•完全安全的食品应用；•为技术用户创造5700万英镑的收入；•在整个新鲜农产品行业创造总计660个工作岗位

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