Progress 08/15/16 to 02/14/17

Outputs
Target Audience:Between the initiation of thisproject (August 2016)and December 2016, we reached out to hundreds of potential customers (retailers/distributors and grower-shippers of produce)to gain their insight on our product. We discovered that grower-shippers are the primarystakeholders for our product, a packing insert, to increase the shelf-life of produce. Targeting grower-shippers of producerepresents a strategy shift from our original market focus of local and regional produce distributors. Changes/Problems:In our market research in the Chicago area, we consistently found that produce distributors and retailers resistedthe notion of incorporating new technologies into already packed or palletized produce. They cited the rapidity with which produce inventory entered and exited their operations and the labor-intensiveness of applying our product with each new incoming pallet. We changed our focus up the supply chain to grower-shippers of produce who are more willing to incorporate our product into their operations. On the side of chemical formulation, we have observed that 1-MCP is released at sufficient quantity for bioactivity for well over a week, making the release profile appropriate for a very broad range of shipping timelines. Additionally, we have chosen to focus on an in-package application mode rather than on full room or pallet treatments. This permits local efficacy of the product and maintains active concentrations of 1-MCP near the produce for extended time periods. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? Nothing Reported How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Hazel Technologies marketing and Customer Relations Management (CRM) operations reach out to and engage with potential customers in the produce grower-shipper market and discuss the available applications for our product in that context. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?With the product's formulation ofcomplete, we will conduct on-stie trials with potential customers and seek to gain our first commitments to purchase the product.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Hazel Technologieshas developed a synthesis for 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP). We have screened an array of carrier materials for 1-MCP, and assessed their capacity for 1-MCP retention, followed by assessment of slow-release. We followed the release characteristics of these materials with gas chromatography (GC) and verified their chemical surface areas withBrunauer-Emmett-Teller(BET) analysis. Hazel Technologies has chosena formulation for our ethylene-inhibiting insert product, as well as completed a small-scale production process capable of servicing small commercial volumes of produce, and an appropriate sachet material. In addition to validating the slow release characterisitcs of our material throughthrough analytical measurement with GC, we conduted efficacy trials in our laboratory with produce commodities such asbroccoli, tomatoes, and avocados. Usable shelf-life extensions averaged approximately 40% over these tests. In summary, the output of this reporting period was development of 1-MCP synthesis methods, a minimum viable product formulation, and proof of efficacy for ourethylene inhibitor-releasing sachet which extends produce shelf-life in a laboratory setting. Moving forward, we will complete in-house produce efficacy validation on a range of additional produce products and test the technology on produce commodities in commercial spaces. Additional commodities of interest include melons, tropical fruits, and stone fruit.

Publications

Progress 08/15/16 to 02/14/17

Outputs
Target Audience:Hazel Technologies' 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) release technology is designed for application in produce packaging. A single sachet is applied in each produce box, which extendsultilizable shelf-life of climacteric produce. We identified that our primary customers are growers-shippers of produce rather than produce retailers/distributors. During the project, we focused our efforts ontrialing with these stakeholders with the goals of dosage optimization andconvincing grower-shippers of climacteric produceto adopt our technology. Additionally, once we selected the ultimate product formulation, we began to reach out to academic and biopesticide industry specialists at professional meetings whom we hope to work with in the future for third-party evaluation of the technology. Changes/Problems:During this project, there were two notable course-corrections. 1) Target market refinement - At the earliest stage of this project, we had defined the target market for our 1-MCP packing inserts as the produce retail/distribution sector. After dozens of market research interviews with representatives from the produce supply chain, we surmised that modifications to packaging late in the supply chain were broadly considered too costly in terms of labor and outside of the normal operational purview of these firms. As a result, we switched our efforts on grower-shipper firms at the production and packaging level of the agricultural supply chain.In addition to being willing to integrate our sachets into their packing operations, these firms brought greater commodity and technical specialization. They are significantly more comfortable and even enthusiastic to adopttechnical solutions to protect and extend produce freshness. 2) Release material refinement - The first iterations of material design for the product focused on 1-MCP release tunability rather than process cost. As a result, the firstgeneration of materials for 1-MCP slow-release were prohibitively expensive. After iterating on material types, we selected a particular formulationcapable of the release profile needed for efficacy at aproduction price point that can make the product viable economically for commercialiazation. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Duringface-to-face business development interactions with potential customers, Hazel representativeshave developed extensivecrop-specific knowledge of post-harvest technologies and have becomesubject matterexperts on post-harvest methodologies. As a result, Hazel now offers post-harvest consulting services to support and supplement our technological innovations, adding additional valueforour clients. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?During the course of this project, Hazel Technologies sent in-houserepresentativesto meet multiple customers and potential customers in key U.S.produce-growing regions.Our industry is defined by face-to-face business development interactions, making those interactions essential forknowledge dissemination. Hazel has additionally joined tradeorganizations such as the Produce Blue Book and Produce Marketing Association andhas presentedto broad technical and academic audiences including presentations at theUSDA supportedIR-4 Biopesticide Workshop and participation inYieldWise (a Rockefeller Foundation initiative on food waste prevention) with additional roundtables and business conferences to follow. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Approximately 30% of harvested produce goes to waste each year in the United States, representing $40 billion in value. This is a tremendous waste of essential resources, like fresh water, labor, energy, and land. One means of reducing waste is improving efficiency in the produce supply chain. Improving supply chain efficiency has benefits for the United States agricultural industry such as enabling United States grower-shippers totransport their produce further, exporting to more distant and foreign markets where these goods fetch higher prices. Improved inventory utilizability means that producers can extend their seasons and survive supply gluts by holding inventory with confidence. Our technology is a small packaging insert or sachetdesigned to release an industry-standard ethyleneinhibitor, 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP), which slows down produce aging and senescence. The sachet is placed with agricultural produce at the point of packingand travels with it through the supply chain to provide lasting protection. Over the course of this project, we've shown that the product can increase produce shelf-life byat least 40%. For example, our productcan extend the 10-day shelf-life of Florida avocados by 9 days. A typical supplyshrink for a producer of avocados may be 7% or more. By reducing waste in an avocadosupply chain to 3%, we can save a $100M revenue avocado grower-shipper as much as $4M in lost revenueand protect the grower-shipper using our product from the additional damage done by rejected shipments. Waste reduction provided by our 1-MCP slow-release system was quantified in laboratoryand commericialspaces. We learned that potential customers demand custom trials in their own warehouses. Topromote positive customer relationships, we conducted the many trials in customer spaces, requiring laboratory trials only for initial confirmation of technical feasibility. The following results were found in commerical settings:In green plum tomatoes at ambient temperatures, color break from the green mature stage was extended from 1 week in the case of controls to 2 weeks in the case of treated tomatoes. In mature green bananas at ambient temperature, average ripeness level remained less than 6 (on the standard ripeness scale) for over 9 days in the case of treated bananas, as compared to 6 days in control bananas. Results obtained in on guava, starfruit, and multiple greenskin avocado varieties showed shelf-life extension of 4 days (guava), 9 days (starfruit), and 9 days (avocado). These shelf-life exension resultshave proven to be commercially relevant for our target customers and were accomplished without change in taste, any dehydration, or other cosmetic defects. In summary, during the course of the grant period, we iterated on the product material formulation toachievethe desired release profile for commercially relevant shelf-life extension in a compositionthat isinexpensive to manufacture and can be prepared in bulk. After laboratory study, the product was deployed with several grower-shippers in their operations directly, to observe the ability to extend product shelf-life. Guava, green skin avocado, banana, melon, and pears generally were observed to show an increase in shelf-life of 40%. An outcomegenerated for grower-shippers is decreased shrinkage in their supply chains; anoutcome for the environment includes reduced agricultural waste. Our customers (grower-shippers of produce)are interested in expanding the reach of their commodities, for instance accessing markets far from tropical fruit production. Our technology increases opportunities for export of produce and shipping confidence for those operations and thusly reduces the risk profile of those ventures.

Publications