Green product that extend fresh produce shelf life and ensure food safety while reducing / eliminating the use of fungicides and reduce their residues on the produce

About

The world’s population is expected to grow to almost 10 billion by 2050, boosting agricultural demand by some 50 percent. Food security and healthy food to feed the world population are one of the biggest challenges of this century and probably the most important and basic right. Globally, around one-third of all food produced, around 1.3 billion tonnes, is lost or wasted along the food chain, from production to consumption. In addition, with more than 70 million people getting sick in the US and Europe alone food safety is another major concern and source of waste with burden on public health and significant healthcare cost. The impact of unsafe food costs low- and middle-income economies about US$ 110 billion in lost productivity and medical expenses each year. Reducing food losses and waste would increase the supply of available food and strengthen global food security. Wasting food is not only an ethical and economic issue but it also depletes the environment of limited natural resources. By reducing food losses and waste to help achieve sustainable development goals, we can also: • support the fight against climate change (food waste alone generates about 8% of Global Greenhouse Gas Emissions) • save nutritious food for redistribution to those in need, helping to eradicate hunger and malnutrition (some 43 million people in the EU cannot afford a quality meal every second day) • save money for farmers, companies and households. A great deal of food waste is a result of spoilage and inadequate food safety practices. The most common way to protect fresh produce and prevent loss is the use of hazardous chemicals such as pesticides. The effects on humans and the environment of exposure to these hazardous chemicals are a continuing concern as they are intrinsically toxic and deliberately spread in the environment. The use of these products requires strict regulation and monitoring of residues in food and the environment. In addition, many retailers require their supplies to deliver produce with pesticide residues levels significantly below what is legally permitted due to increasing costumer demand for healthy food. The evolution of food systems needs to be assessed not only in terms of economic efficiency and capacity to improve food security and safety, but also in terms of their environmental impacts along the entire food chain. As such, is it possible to maintain current yields or increase yields without hazardous chemicals or with reduced amount? Save Foods have developed a set of eco-friendly and “green” products to control and prevent potential pathogen contamination from field to fork thus prolonging produce shelf life and more importantly ensuring safe, ready to eat produce. Save Foods has developed a technology based on a proprietary blend of organic acids used in combination with an oxidizer. The combination of our proprietary organic acids blend and an oxidizer (hydrogen peroxide or Per Acetic Acid = PAA) is much more effective than any one of the ingredients acting alone. Hence the combinations of hydrogen peroxide or PAA with Save Foods blend of acids show synergistic effect. This synergy extends the spectrum of action of Save Foods product and allows its action on gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria, besides the action on fungi, spores and viruses lipophilic and hydrophilic. Furthermore, Save Foods blend of acids improves the stability and efficacy of the hydrogen peroxide or PAA when used alone, therefore the concentration of Save Foods products in the application is significantly lower than hydrogen peroxide or PAA’s concentration when used alone and allow short contact time period. In addition, unlike conventional bactericides and fungicides, the active ingredients in our products do not leave any residues of toxicological concern on the treated produce; hydrogen peroxide rapidly decomposes to water and oxygen and the ingredients of our acids blend are recognized by the United States Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, as GRAS, or Generally Recognized As Safe. More importantly, it significantly reduces the need for additional post-harvest applications such as conventional chemical bactericides and fungicides, which have regulatory limitations on maximum residue levels (MRL) allowed. Furthermore, Save Foods materials require less water to achieve high level cleansing & shine.

Key Benefits

• No residues of toxicological concern • Save Foods products are GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe by the FDA) • Reduction of food loss & waste by improving produce shelf life • Significant reduction in the use of hazardous chemicals and in their food residues • Very efficient against foodborne pathogens like E. coli, Salmonella and Listeria (Food Safety) • Allow the users to comply with regulations - fully synergetic with world’s ongoing change in regulations to eliminate the use of hazardous chemicals • 30-50% cheaper comparing to current solutions for ensuring produce shelf life • Result in shiner and better-looking fruit which have a direct impact on sales • Provide friendly and safer working environment • Patent pending for new generation of products

Applications

In 2018, more than 850 million ton of fresh fruit were produced worldwide. Save Foods has selected high value fruit crops (e.g. citrus, avocado, mango, apples, stone fruits and table grapes) in selected locations for a total addressable market of close to 200 million ton. More than 30% of the fruits are lost or wasted at the post-harvest stage and at this stage the use of hazardous chemicals leaves significant residues on the produce. Save Foods has determined to concentrate first on the post-harvest segment were its technology and products were already validated (30% LESS FOOD LOSS & WASTE, 5% MORE YIELD, 50 to 100% LESS HAZARDOUS CHEMICALS). Additional applications: greenhouse (leafy and micro-greens), pre-harvest and re-packing and on the retailers shelf

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