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Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering
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- 2. Humble Produce Label Wins First Innovation Award
- Thursday, March 22, 2007 University of Arizona Communications
As inventions go, this one doesn't have many bells and whistles. But a tiny label developed by a researcher at The University of Arizona in Tucson has the potential to save grocery shoppers and food producers hundreds of millions of dollars, and now has also won a new prize for creative technology.
Mark Riley, an associate professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering at UA, and his research team came up with the device, called RediRipe. For it, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano has awarded Riley the first ever "Governor's Arizona Innovation Award" that recognizes new technology developed in the state.
"Arizona needs to be a state of innovators," Napolitano said. "It's all part of making Arizona globally comptetitive."
The award program was created to recognize education initiatives, companies, individuals and government entities that promote innovation, math and science and/or create a spirit of entrepreneurship that advances Arizona in the global economy.
Napolitano, who chairs the National Governors Association
(http://www.nga.org) is championing that group's intitiave, Innovation America, to boost the ability of states to compete globally through new opportunities in science, technology, engineering and math in K-12 and post-secondary education.
Riley's simple label appears to fit the bill. The RediRipe device is little more than a sticker, not unlike those already seen on produce that tells a store's computer what's being scanned at the checkout register. But RediRipe sends an entirely different message. The label detects the subtle changes in fruits and vegetables as they emit ethylene gas, a hormone that produce gives off as part of the ripening process, and then changes color to signal their maturation.
The advantage to shoppers is obvious. A RediRipe label will signal when a tomato or an apple is still green, good to go, or too far gone - considerably reducing the art, guesswork and frustration that goes on in virtually every produce market in the world. Riley said it would add about a penny to the cost of each piece of produce.
For the fresh food industry, a multi-billion dollar enterprise in this country alone, RediRipe has the potential to save a sizeable percentage of the apples, pears, peaches, melons, tomatoes and avocados headed to market.
Over-ripe and rotten fruit not only has almost no retail value, it's mere presence tends to make nearby fruit ripen faster as well. Or, as Riley said, "one rotten apple really 'can' spoil the rest of the barrel."
Riley modestly accepted the award, and said while it isn't a cure for cancer, it will help consumers get better fruit at better prices.
"We may not be curing cancer," Napolitano said, "but doesn't an apple a day keep the doctor away?"
Riley formed and co-owns RediRipe LLC with Robert Klein of Albuquerque, N.M., to take the product to market. His work is being supported by the Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission and a grant from the U. S.
Department of Agriculture. RediRipe is undergoing further trials, but could well be available to produce growers and consumers in the near future.
Contact Riley at 520-626-9120 or e-mail to riley@ag.arizona.edu - Updated: March 27, 2007
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