Apeel sciences

 APEEL SCIENCES was founded in 2012 by James Rogers after a $100,000 injection from the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation. Since then backing was provided by Bill Gates, venture capitalist firm Andreessen Horowitz, as well as ATEL Capital Group. Apeel so far has raised $110 million in financing. In 2018 it was names by the World Economic Forum (WEF) as one of their technology pioneers. Its development was aimed to reduce food and plastic waste for supermarkets. Its websites boasts that its own studies have shown that the application of Apeel, which acts like a second peel, to fruits and vegetables almost doubled their shelf life. So, what is it?

Apeel is a lipid (fat) based coating “made of purified mono- and diglycerides derived from sustainably sourced, non-GMO plant oils mimicking the natural protection already existing on all fruits and vegetables” and for Organic produce “Apeel includes the addition of citric acid, an ingredient widely found in most fruits, particularly citrus - just two simple, plant-derived ingredients.”

This immediately begs the question, what is the process involved in creating this ‘almost natural’ “completely safe” lipid coating. Well, they state on their website that they source their fats from a wide variety of plant oils. Which they go on to say is distilled and filtered. Now, the dangers of plant oils have become more widespread as has the research performed on them. We do know that high temperature processed plant fats are extremely toxic to our health. It is concerning then that these processed fats are going to be sprayed on to our fruits in vegetables. In America the use of Apeel is already widespread in most stores and even used on organic produce. Thankfully in the UK it won’t qualify for use on organic foods, but it has been tested in Tesco and ASDA on avocados and cucumbers. Customers of these stores were not informed these changes would be made. The only difference was the addition of an Apeel sticker. Is it fair to consumers to be ill informed with the addition of a highly processed plant fat on their so called ‘wholefoods’?`

Oh, and also... you cant wash it off.