How AgroFresh tech aids the food safety process

Keeping fruits and vegetables safe isn’t always a simple task, but there’s an arm of the produce industry that strives to help growers, packers, retailers and others do just that.

“According to the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization, keeping food safe is a complex process that starts on the farm and ends with the consumer,” said Juliana Manco, marketing manager, Latin America region, for Philadelphia-based AgroFresh Solutions Inc.

“To deliver … safe food, there are some standards on quality that make the food safe to eat,” she said. “These standards minimize the risk of biological, chemical and physical hazards on the food.”

Helping growers, packers and retailers provide high-quality, fresh fruits and vegetables while minimizing food waste and maximizing shelf-life help define the mission of AgroFresh, said Amy Tranzillo, global marketing director. AgroFresh provides science-based solutions, data-driven digital technologies and high-touch customer services, Tranzillo said.

The company helps customers achieve quality standards in their daily business operations by helping them minimize the risk of microbiological contamination with biodegradable disinfectants and equipment, like its Control-Tec Dosifier that helps treat fruits with a precise quantity of input, reducing the risk of residues on food, Manco added. By reducing food waste, AgroFresh is contributing to a more sustainable world food supply, she said.

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Founded in 1996 with the commercialization of the SmartFresh Quality System, which slows the ripening process and helps maintain just-picked freshness and quality in crops like apples, pears, kiwis and avocados, AgroFresh has developed an extensive portfolio of solutions for the near- and post-harvest freshness produce supply chain, Tranzillo said.

One of its innovations is FreshCloud, an integrated digital platform that helps packers with their quality inspection process by tracking from field to floor to shipping. FreshCloud digitizes the quality inspection process, she said, analyzing metrics such as color and size, and it can also track fruit defects.

“It allows end-to-end visibility,” Tranzillo said.

Prior to FreshCloud, she said, inspections were done manually, and handwritten data was transferred to a spreadsheet and often not reviewed until after fruit had left the packinghouse.

“FreshCloud digitizes data to the cloud so it can be seen in real time, and quick decisions can be made,” Tranzillo said.

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AgroFresh also has a full range of foggable and drench antimicrobials, such as ActiMist and ActiSeal, designed to prevent fungal decay and maintain quality, she said.

ActiMist is a portfolio of antimicrobial products that work as a foggable fungicide application system in conjunction with SmartFresh delivered in the storage room, allowing packers to close their rooms quicker, Tranzillo said. The system can be used for