MIRTECH INC. — Department of Agriculture SBIR Phase II: 8.5

Description

PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACTProblem and opportunity: Pears are an important crop for US agriculture with the US being oneof the top global producers and exporters. Non-availability of ripened "ready-to-eat" pear year- round in retail is a significant problem for the industry impeding sales and profits. Also the currentpractice of pear ripening suffers from over-ripening and shorter shelf life. To address these issueswe propose a novel dual-regulator ripening management system—based on encapsulation andcontrolled release technology to manage the ripening of pears and other climacteric fruits duringtransit. The dual-regulator system includes a combination of ethylene and 1-methylcyclopropene(1-MCP) wherein ethylene is released at an accelerated rate to initiate ripening followed bycontrolled slow release of 1-MCP to prevent over-ripening and extend shelf life.Project objectives and efforts: The overall objective is to develop a simple and effective in-transitdual regulator ripening system to control the ripening of pears during transit thereby enabling theindustry to provide ready-to-eat pears with enhanced shelf life at the retail.In Phase I we have established the feasibility of the dual-regulator ripening concept. Wesuccessfully developed ethylene encapsulated sachets to release ethylene at an accelerated rateat >90% RH and the sachets were effective in ripening Bartlett pears and tomatoes in simulatedtransit conditions. We also developed a slow-release 1-MCP system that can sustain the 1-MCPrelease for several days. These encouraging results motivate us and our partners (including RutgersUniversity 2 pear growers 2 packaging manufacturers and a distributor) to further develop thedual-regulator ripening system.Phase II will establish the technical feasibility and commercial viability of the dual-regulatorsystem. The technical feasibility will be established by the following research activities: (1)optimizing the concentrations and release rates of ethylene and 1-MCP such that their effects donot overpower each other (2) developing a gas releasing device as an alternative in situationswhere in-box applications are not suitable (3) testing the retention stability of the activeingredients in the system and (4) developing a prototype. The commercial viability will beestablished by conducting field trials with our industry partners to validate the bio-efficacy of theprototype and optimize it.Anticipated results and potential commercial applications: We expect Phase II will generate thenecessary technical knowledge to develop a prototype of the dual-regulator system. The prototypewill enable the project to move on to the early stage of commercialization in Phase III where theprototype will be fine-tuned to become a minimum viable product. Our industry partners will beready to assist us in market testing and commercialization.After the successful commercializationof the system to pears its application will be extended to other climacteric fruits such as avocadobanana tomato and mango.