Longer Shelf Life for Fruits and Vegetables

Why Throw Away Those Two Week Old Fruits and Vegetables

Most people get a sick feeling when they must throw away fresh fruits and vegetables that have become too ripe to eat.  Estimates are that as much as 40% of fresh fruits and vegetables are thrown away because they have become too ripe to eat. 

Ideally fruits and vegetables would ripen until they have reached their maximum in freshness and flavor, and then cease the ripening process at that point.  This would allow the produce to be at its best when the consumer is ready for it, and it would not become too ripe to use.

The ripening of fruits and vegetables is caused by the ethylene gas that it produces.  Once fruits and vegetables have matured on the vine they begin to expel ethylene gas.  This ethylene gas causes the ripening process and continues until decay begins, and the food is no longer suitable for consumption.  This window of time after it is ripe but before it begins to decay is commonly referred to as ‘shelf life’.

The benefits of neutralizing the Ethylene gas that the fruit produces.

It is now possible to neutralize the ethylene gas that the fruits and vegetables produce and slow the ripening process.  While neutralizing the ethylene gas doesn’t stop the ripening process, it does slow it down.  This product, BioWash Fertilizer Enhancer, is made from 99% plant-based ingredients, is non-toxic, non-carcinogenic, and readily bio-degradable.  BioWash is primarily used to improve how efficiently plants absorb nutrients, but can also be used as a ‘veggie wash’ for fruits and vegetables after harvest.  Washing vegetables in BioWash for 2-3 minutes has shown to be beneficial in removing remaining dirt and pesticide residues, and also in extending shelf life by one to two weeks. 

Shelf life is typically extended by 2 weeks after ethylene gas is neutralized. 

Photos shown here re photos demonstrate the effects of washing fruits and vegetables in BioWash after harvest.  The net result is that consumers can remove any remaining farm chemicals AND make their fruits and vegetables last longer.     

The tomato on the left was washed in BioWash, the one on the right was not.

Reduce Environmental Impact of Agri-Chemicals

Get More Benefit From Your Fertilizer

Throughout history the use of various chemicals has been an important part of farming.  Chemical fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, and fungicides are applied regularly on most farms.  However, more and more safety concerns are being raised about such wide usage of chemicals in the agricultural industry. 

One source of concern is for those who consume the produce.  Most chemicals sprayed onto fruits and vegetables are oil based so that rain won’t wash them off.  However, this also means that they are more difficult to wash off during post-harvest washing, and may find their way onto the kitchen table.    

The second concern is for the risks to farm workers who apply them.  Chemicals can enter the body through both breathing fumes and through skin contact.  Repeated exposure to toxic chemicals during the mixing and application process can lead to health issues over time. 

Thirdly, continued chemical applications can result in a buildup of unused chemicals in the soil.  If fertilizers are not in a form that plants can easily absorb, much of the fertilizer remains in the soil.  Plants only absorb a small percentage of the chemical fertilizers that are applied, which is costly to farmers and damaging to the environment.  The residual chemicals often leach down into groundwater or are washed away through runoff into streams and lakes.  If they reach lakes and streams, chemical residue causes the formation of excessive algae in the water.  All this algae reduces the amount of oxygen in the water available for fish, and reduces the amount of sunlight that can reach underwater plants.  These concerns make the efficiency of agri-chemical usage a key issue. 

The impact of chemical fertilizers is reduced if plants uptake more of the chemicals in the soil.   Plant roots use electromagnetic attraction (called Cation Exchange) to draw nutrient ions from the soil.  Quantum chemistry has now been used to develop a groundwater safe product known as BioWash Fertilizer Enhancer that increases the Cation Exchange Capacity in plants so that a higher percentage of the fertilizer is used by the plants.  A sister product, BioWash Soil Amendment, is applied directly to the soil and breaks down residual fertilizers, making nutrients in the soil more easily absorbed by the plant roots.

This increase in fertilizer efficiency not only reduces the probability of pollution from these chemicals, the increased nutrient intake by the plants also produces larger, healthier, plants which produce a larger crop.  Because the cost of BioWash is only about $6.00 per application per acre, the farmer can not only reduce his environmental impact, but he can also reap higher profits from the increase in crop production using fertilizer that would otherwise go unused and contribute to environmental problems.