Magic powder set to change the fruit industry

We have all seen movies or programs where the wizard digs into a special pouch and pulls out a handful of powder and then sprinkles it around and, voila, suddenly things change – it’s magic.

A small group of University of Queensland scientists are about to make big changes in the fresh fruit industry with their own magic powder.

The public expect that fruits will be available all year around, which is an issue because not all fruit grows all year. Most fruit grows in seasons and that is when it was traditionally only available. Today using what is known as Postharvest Technology, most fruit can be in our supermarkets and fruit shops when we want it.

Fruit is still grown in it’s season but with the correct control of storage conditions and the use of ethylene gas for controlled ripening, it can now be on the shelves for most of the year. This is good for consumers, as they can have their favourite fruit most of the time during the year.

It is good for the fruit industry because product can be harvested and then held so it can be distributed throughout the year, thus preventing massive loss and waste at the end of the growing season when all the available ripe fruit has no market.

There are some people who object and disagree with this storage and treatment of fruit, but it is the reality of our lives and consumer demands. If consumers were happy to only have their fruit in specific seasons, then this technology would not be the vital part of our lives that it is today.

The new powder has been developed by Professor Bhesh Bhandari and PhD student from UQ’s School of Agriculture and Food Sciences. Mr Binh Ho, said it is “a food grade, environmentally friendly biological powder that can release the ethylene gas very quickly in humid and high temperature conditions.”

It is set to make a huge change to the current process of ripening by making it safer and more efficient and will certainly reduce the distrust and fear that currently exists about it. It will allow for only small batches of fruit to be treated and could even be used directly in the trucks transporting the fruit, so the product arrives at the markets ripe and ready for immediate sale.

So it could be called a magic powder because it seems like it will certainly have magic powers to make change.