SBIR-STTR Award

Postharvest losses (PHLs) of agricultural produce during storage distribution and retail is a cause of significant economic and environmental burden. Microbial causes of PHLs which includes fungal spoilage is an open challenge that is largely lacking safe and effective solutions. A conservative estimate puts the economic burden from microbial spoilage at more than$10B/year worldwide. Compared to the synthetic antimicrobial agents which can have harmful side effects various natural essential oils (EO) of plant origin are generally a safe alternative for suppressing microbial spoilage. Their antimicrobial activity has been well established throughout scientific literature. Their potential for extending shelf life of produce has also been demonstrated by independent researchers and by our internal testing. Motivated by the scale of PHLs and the importance of this problem our aim is to develop and commercialize safe effective technologies and products to reduce the PHLs of fresh produce based on natural EO compounds (EOCs) of plant origin with antimicrobial properties. Our focus for this Phase I effort is on vapor phase dose response curve characterization of EOC formulations developed by our team. The objectives of the proposed research are 1) to develop the experimental set up and techniques to control and measure the gas-phase concentrations of EOCs 2) to perform testing on fruits to study spoilage delay as a function of EOC concentrations and 3) to analyze and document the results. The results of this research will be used as primary inputs for the follow-on product development activities for Phase II.