Is It Ripe? Check the Sticker.
A New Mexico professor has invented a sticker that measures ripeness, and Washington state hopes to pilot it during this year’s apple harvest. The decal measures ethylene output and changes color when it’s time to pick the fruit. Fruits release ethlyene as they ripen, and distribution plants gas fruit with the chemical to ripen them before they go to a store.
Given the industry’s tendency to pick fruit before it’s ripe, I have to wonder how useful this new decal will be. Doesn’t it only benefit those farmers who bring fruit to market, rather than large-scale commercial operations that pick early anyway? The farmers who schlep apples to market still represent a small percentage of Washington’s apple crop.
