Become a fan of Slashdot on Facebook

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Biotech Science

New Label Shows When Fruit Is Ripe 54

Posted by timothy from the it's-so-mellow dept.
Dekaner writes "New Scientist has an article about a new 'smart' label developed in New Zealand changes color as fruit inside the package with it ripens. The label is designed to stop customers squeezing the fruit to tell if it is ripe enough to eat. The first packages to be tested contain pears, which need to be soft before they are eaten. If the labels prove effective with pears, the research institute in New Zealand will develop versions that work with kiwi fruit, avocados and melons."
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

New Label Shows When Fruit Is Ripe More

New Label Shows When Fruit Is Ripe

Comments Filter:

  • hm... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by FinestLittleSpace ( 719663 )
    this is actually a pretty wicked invention, but I don't always buy ripened fruit.... often i like to get slightly unripened fruit, or over ripe fruit.... so this is good for joe bloggs who wants to eat his/her fruit that day, but for people who like to span out food over a week, it lacks any real long term use.

    • Re:hm... (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      this is actually a pretty wicked invention, but I don't always buy ripened fruit.... often i like to get slightly unripened fruit, or over ripe fruit.... so this is good for joe bloggs who wants to eat his/her fruit that day, but for people who like to span out food over a week, it lacks any real long term use.

      Sure it does. Now you can pass over fruit that says it's already ripe.
      • Sure, here you go. I'll give you lessons on how to tell if it's ripe if you like?>

    • Re:hm... (Score:2, Informative)

      by bananahammock ( 595781 )
      This would also depend on what kind of fruit you purchase, 'cause as most would know, not all fruit ripen after picking.

      For example, fruits which will ripen at room temperature AFTER picking:

      1. Golden Delicious and Gravenstein Apples only
      2. Avocados
      3. Apricots
      4. Bananas
      5. Guava
      6. Mangoes
      7. Papaya
      8. Pears
      9. Persimmons
      10. Pineapples
      11. Plums
      12. Pomegranates
      13. Cactus fruit

      The following fruits will not ripen at room temperature AFTER picking:

      1. All Apples (except t
      • You can ripen a peach by putting it in a paper bag with an unripe banana. The gases the banana emits ripen the peach.

        Bananas will ripen faster in a paper bag than not.

  • Squeeze Harder (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Thats not going to stop people from squeezing even harder to ripen the damn thing.

  • perhaps... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by mOoZik ( 698544 ) on Wednesday December 03, 2003 @12:58PM (#7619346) Homepage
    So now instead of covering the fruits in wax or other substances to make them appear more attractive, they'll simply forge the labels to feign ripeness.

  • One Small Problem... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Sunlighter ( 177996 ) on Wednesday December 03, 2003 @01:01PM (#7619367)

    Doesn't the fruit itself change color as it ripens?

    • Re:One Small Problem... (Score:4, Informative)

      by dev0n ( 313063 ) on Wednesday December 03, 2003 @01:16PM (#7619500) Homepage
      Some do, yes.. others do not. Pears, for example. Or kiwis. Or mangos. Or papaya. Or melons.

      Bananas are just about the only fruit I can think of that you can tell accurately tell ripeness based on color. There's probably more than that, but my point is that color is not a good indication of ripeness for most fruits. :)
      • kiwiFRUIT you silly american.

        do you call grapefruit grapes? do you call blackberries blacks? or oranges oras? no.

        besides, a kiwi is a small flightless bird which is an endangered species, and our national symbol.
    • Maybe in nature, but with produce that's picked before it's ripe in order to better facilitate shipping, then pumped with ethylene to mature on the spot. It's hard to tell.

    • Re:One Small Problem... (Score:5, Informative)

      by DerekLyons ( 302214 ) <fairwater@@@gmail...com> on Wednesday December 03, 2003 @02:02PM (#7619965) Homepage
      Doesn't the fruit itself change color as it ripens?
      Yes, but the processes run in parallel and are asynchronous. (A fruit may reach full color, but not be fully ripe, or it may be fully ripe, but not fully colored.) Commercial fruit growers/packers take advantage of this by exposing the fruit to gases that speed color changes, even when the actual ripening is far from complete. This makes it cheaper for them, as they can pick whole trees at once, rather than fruit-by-fruit, and unripe fruit is less likely to be damaged in transit. However, since very few fruits actually ripen off of the tree, the consumer gets something that looks like a real ripe fruit, but is actually anything but.

  • mmmmm (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Nice melons.

  • But (Score:1)

    by EdMack ( 626543 )
    What if when walking down the isles I prefer to squeeze and pinch the fruits?

  • Nature did it already (Score:5, Funny)

    by AtariAmarok ( 451306 ) on Wednesday December 03, 2003 @01:13PM (#7619471)
    There is already a label that appears on fruit when it is ripe. It is called a fruitfly.

  • that's a good idea (Score:4, Interesting)

    by theMerovingian ( 722983 ) on Wednesday December 03, 2003 @01:20PM (#7619532) Journal

    And not too hard to implement. You would need a substance that changes color in the presence of ethylene (the plant hormone that encourages ripening).

    I am guessing that they are putting some chlorophyll (a simple sugar produced by most plants/green algae) onto a sticker. Ethylene causes the sugar to break down, changing chlorophyll (the reason plants are green) to some other simpler sugar (which would show a different color).

  • Just cant see this being a hit with certain people (Score:5, Insightful)

    by hookedup ( 630460 ) on Wednesday December 03, 2003 @01:35PM (#7619694)

    At least for a couple more years anyway....

    When I go for groceries, and the wife has asked me to pick up some sort of vegetables/fruits, this little sticker would be a blessing. Now say if my mother/grandmother were to go, i'm sure she would disregard the sticker, and squeeze the fruit regardless, because that's what they've been doing for years and years of cooking. For our 'packaged food is better food' generation, this may work, but for the older 'cook from scratch' generation, I just cant see it being a big hit.
    • When I go for groceries, and the wife has asked me to pick up some sort of vegetables/fruits, this little sticker would be a blessing. Now say if my mother/grandmother were to go, i'm sure she would disregard the sticker, and squeeze the fruit regardless, because that's what they've been doing for years and years of cooking. For our 'packaged food is better food' generation, this may work, but for the older 'cook from scratch' generation, I just cant see it being a big hit.

      Not to mention that you feel mor

    • Re:Just cant see this being a hit with certain peo (Score:5, Funny)

      by Red Rocket ( 473003 ) on Wednesday December 03, 2003 @03:53PM (#7621113)

      ...but for the older 'cook from scratch' generation, I just cant see it being a big hit.

      Don't worry. The new Medicare bill will take care of those trouble-makers.
    • This will only be a hit among stupid people. Smart people will realize that the information conveyed by the labels will be, for the most part, outright fabrications. Fruit producers don't want you to know if fruit is ripe. They want you to buy unripe fruit and think it's ripe. This will just be another way to delude people.
    • Yeah, but in thirty years most of the 'cook from scratch' generation will be dead or sucking food through a straw. The only people left will be the 'packaged food is better' generation plus a few holdouts.
      • Not so... Food Network is popular with more than just old farts (I'm 25, was taught to cook by my Mom & Grandmother, and love to cook).

        I wouldn't buy fruit or veggies without touching them. I check apples for firmness, smell carrots, sueeze and smell peppers, taste the end of celery, wiggle the stems of artichokes, etc. That's just how a smart consumer/cook buys produce.

        There are always going to be smart consumers wanting to "kick the tires" - be it a car or a fruit that they are buying. That's not
        • I wouldn't buy fruit or veggies without touching them. I check apples for firmness, smell carrots, sueeze and smell peppers, taste the end of celery, wiggle the stems of artichokes, etc. That's just how a smart consumer/cook buys produce.

          That's disturbing. Now not only do I know that my food has been sniffed and squeezed (or licked apparently in the case of celery), but that description in general was horrifying reminiscent of foreplay.

  • melons (Score:4, Funny)

    by nycsubway ( 79012 ) on Wednesday December 03, 2003 @01:49PM (#7619838) Homepage
    You should always be able to squeeze melons. Theres nothing wrong with squeezing them, you need to be able to tell if it's firm but soft. Too soft isn't good.

    A label will never be able to replace the feel of squeezing a melon.
    _____________________________________

    • Re:melons (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward

      You should always be able to squeeze melons. Theres nothing wrong with squeezing them, you need to be able to tell if it's firm but soft. Too soft isn't good.

      I tried explaining this to the wife, but first she insisted she had a headache, then slapped me for suggesting they were too saggy.

    • -You can have those ripe melons when you pry them from my cold, dead fingers.

      -Stickers indicate when melons are at their peak...tassles extra.

      -Sciences frees us from burden of squeezing ripe melons, still no cure for cancer (nods to Fark)

      -Nice stickers, but how do you get Natalie Portman to wear them?

      -But how do you see the stickers under the sweater?

      Did I miss any...hope not. I'd hate to think this melon thread hadn't been thouroughly milked.

      Slashdot: Your home for single-entendre.

  • Stickers on fruit suck. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by The_Terminalator ( 696236 ) on Wednesday December 03, 2003 @02:20PM (#7620164)
    I think this is a response to consumer complaints regarding the current practice of stickering fruit with its product code. I can't ever seem to get those stickers off without bruising the fruit.

    Years ago a friend of mine was moving up from bag boy to checker at a supermarket, he had to memorize all the codes for fruits and vegtables and pass a test. Now a checker reads the code off a sticker, shifting the burden to the consumer.

    I don't think the color change adds enough value to balance the annoyance of removing a sticker from every piece of fruit you buy.

  • They're approaching this from the wrong direction (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Strange Ranger ( 454494 ) on Wednesday December 03, 2003 @03:00PM (#7620530)
    Does the label also tell us when the fruit is over ripe and too squishy to eat? That's the biggest reason I squeeze produce, I'm looking for rottenness, bruises and damage. If it's not ripe enough no big deal, I'll set it on my window sill until it is ripe. But getting a squishy piece of rotten fruit I think is what most people are trying to avoid.

    For the most part grocery stores don't have a problem with getting produce to market too early. More the opposite, when the produce is too old and it pains them to throw it out at a loss.

    Unfortunately something tells me that stores wouldn't be very interested in a sticker that turned into a Mr. Yuck when the fruit went bad.
    • I hate bruised fruit. And sometimes it's really hard to tell by only looking at it if it is or not (case in point, bananas). I never buy an apple without first "feeling it up", so to speak.

      This won't stop me, although for some things like peaches, I wouldn't mind it, because I like my peaches slightly crisp, and would learn to look for the non-ripe-showing stickers.
  • Eddie Izzard made a comment [anzwers.org] about pears: " And pears can fuck off too. 'Cause they're gorgeous little beasts but they're ripe for a half an hour...and you're never there!"
  • Since pears need to soften before they achieve their best flavour ...

    They do? I prefer my pears hard and crispy. At least Bosc, Anjou, and Asian pears taste fine to me while still hard.

  • Well there certainly is an overly ripe smell coming from SCO's legal team ;)
  • Excellent! I hate walking up to a pile of fruit that's been picked over. Invariably, 50 people before me have picked up, squeezed, and tossed 50 fruit trying to find 2 or 3 that they actually think are "good enough" to buy. It seems to me that all that handling ends up destroying (i.e. too many little bruises and cuts) whatever remains by the time I get there. =)

    Look before you touch! Buy what you touch! I realize these spiffly labels probably won't eliminate this little pet peeve of mine, but one ca

Slashdot Top Deals

FORTRAN is not a flower but a weed -- it is hardy, occasionally blooms, and grows in every computer. -- A.J. Perlis

Close