Our measurement is called Poma FreshTM. It’s derived from Pomona, a Roman Goddess who watches over and protects fruit trees and cares for their cultivation. Poma FreshTM provides consumers immediate answers about freshness at the market and in the kitchen.
- These two heads of spinach look about the same, but what does Poma FreshTM say about their remaining shelf life?
- How fresh is this sushi?
- Is this melon going to be sweet now or should I wait a few days before eating?
- When will this avocado be best to eat?
DIGITAL ASSESSMENT BASED ON SPECTRAL ANALYTIC PRINCIPLES
The digital assessments are based on accepted spectral analytic principles that are commonly used in advanced laboratories, but they are modified for what a cellphone or digital camera’s output will achieve. While the results may not be as accurate as laboratory assays, they are generally more than 95% accurate.
TEMPERATURE AND REFRIGERATION are MAJOR VARIABLEs for KEEPing PRODUCE “FRESH”.
If produce is kept refrigerated in cold-storage warehouses, the cold temperatures will retard the food’s aging, and the rate of produce degradation is minimized. If there is a break in the temperature—if, for instance, the refrigeration in a transportation truck breaks down--Poma FreshTM can detect the subtle difference in chlorophyll status. The Poma FreshTM imagery captures and measures color changes as the skin degrades.
Our Goals
AppliColor hopes to impact the estimated 20% of food that gets discarded by the consumer. Poma FreshTM offers an objective scientific approach to improving the food we eat through improved utilization practices.
Taste and freshness: Elapsed time between picking and eating
A number of factors affects the quality of the produce we eat—what time of day it was picked, the temperature and humidity, subsequent transportation conditions and travel time; once you get it home, there is the time delay created by your decision of when to prepare and eat it.
In general, fruits and vegetables taste best when harvested at their peak maturity, but it can take one to eight days before they are placed on a grocer’s shelf. Produce is shipped from a grower, sometimes to a packager/distributer, to a retail warehouse, then trucked to a local store. Depending on inventory, there may be delays at any point along the logistics chain.
IT’S NOT OVER YET. THERE’S STORAGE TIME ON YOUR KITCHEN COUNTER OR IN YOUR REFRIGERATOR
Consumers may then store this produce for up to seven more days before it’s finally consumed. This means that fresh fruits and vegetables may not be consumed for a significant length of time after harvest, and at each temperature point along the product’s journey, degradation rates can increase. Poma FreshTM objectively presents the relative total accumulated degradation and remaining shelf life of a product at a given moment so that prudent choices can be made about what to buy, when to use and when to discard it. These points of data enable consumers to select the freshest available product, plan its use and consume it, with minimal delays.
Poma FreshTM is a scientific scale of biological markers that is consistent with chlorophyll degradation, senescence (biological age), ripeness and color. Poma FreshTM helps us accurately characterize the condition of a vegetable or piece of fruit.
The Poma FreshTM image above shows dark grey avocados that are not yet ripe, gray avocados that are ripe and avocados that have both white and gray tones. The ones with white and gray tones probably have areas of brown pulp. The level of gray indicates ripeness, from black (not yet ripe) to light gray (ripe).