Consider the strawberry. It is delicate, sweet
only when perfectly ripe, and quickly falls vic-
tim to heat, cold and the passage of time. But
what if this fickle fruit were more like a lemon?
Not in looks or flavor but in its ability to better
withstand travel, temperature and time.
Turning a strawberry into a lemon isn’t
exactly what James Rogers set out to do, but
stick with us here. He is a materials scientist,
which means he has a deep understanding of
how molecules found in nature arrange them-
selves and behave. One day in 2012, he heard a
story on the radio about how perishability, not
the lack of food in the world, is what causes
nearly 11 percent of the global population to go
hungry, while at the same time creating serious
food waste. The United Nations estimates that
a third of all food produced—much of it highly
perishable produce—gets thrown away, a stag-
gering 1.4 billion tons annually. Rogers, then
a Ph.D. student, began to wonder if he could
work his materials science magic on fruits and
vegetables to make them last longer.
At first, people thought he was crazy. But it
wasn’t long before he’d won a $100,000 research
grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,
raised another $110 million and launched Apeel,
a family of plant-derived coatings that stave off
spoilage by sealing water in and keeping oxy-
gen out. Produce treated with Apeel—which is
invisible, edible and flavorless—stays fresh two
to three times longer. Last year, Apeel-dipped av-
ocados arrived in Costco, Kroger and several re-
gional grocers and led to a 50 percent reductionin spoilage and a 10 percent uptick in sales. Limes
and asparagus will arrive on shelves in 2019, with
lemons and more than a dozen other fruits and
vegetables to follow. (The coating must be refor-
mulated for each type of produce.) Rogers is still
working on the holy grail: strawberries.
While the U.S. is an essential market for
growth, it’s the developing world, where farmers
lack access to refrigeration and infrastructure,
that Rogers feels bound to serve. Apeel already
has a prototype coating for the starchy root veg-
etable cassava, a staple for 800 million people
worldwide, and one for mango designed for
farmers in Kenya. “Food waste isn’t just about
food—it’s about water, energy, labor and liveli-
hoods,” says Rogers. Now, thanks to Apeel, fresh,
healthy produce is part of the solution.Innovating the Fight Against Food WasteJames Rogers Founder and CEO, Apeel Sciences