Apples are as wholesome as it gets -- a staple of American households and synonymous with autumn.
Demand for organic apples has only grown, resulting in steady year-over-year growth.1
Yet organic apple suppliers have fewer tools and technologies than conventional apple suppliers to maintain quality after harvest. As a result, a significant percentage of organic apples harvested each year never make it home to consumers.2 And consumers often don’t enjoy their apples once they bring them home, with 68% reporting that they end up throwing some apples away.3
Apeel-Protected Organic Apples offer new ways to maintain quality and deliver a snappy and delicious eating experience. Apeel’s plant-based coating slows water loss and oxidation, which provides benefits of freshness that last throughout the supply chain.
In Washington State, Apeel works with well-known apple suppliers to extend the shelf-life of their organic apples and offer retailers an innovative solution for maintaining high-quality inventory that drives purchase. Greg Koch, CFO of Olympic Fruit Company, reports, “We saw mass loss reduction, so the fruit retained moisture which retained weight. The early results have been very tremendous for us.” The statistics prove the point: for every box of size 88 bulk apples, Apeel’s protection can prevent up to 7 apples from being thrown away on the retail shelf due to shriveling and decay.4
That longer-lasting freshness brings benefits wherever you are in the supply chain. Brett Reasor, CEO of Starr Ranch Growers, says, “Apeel apples help maintain firmness and weight in cold storage and retail conditions, allowing our partners to capture higher sales for product that is sold by the pound. With longer storage abilities, we see opportunities to extend the marketing window for all of our organic varieties.”
And what we’ve learned at Apeel through consumer research is how much a fresher-for-longer apple means in the marketplace and home environment. In a recent consumer survey, one shopper captured it perfectly, “Apeel apples last much longer, which would absolutely be a factor why I would buy them. They also look great and are environmentally friendly, which is a good thing for the consumer.”
Last season, Apeel’s protection prevented an estimated 10 million organic apples from waste at retail, avoiding 1.5 million CO2-eq of greenhouse gas emissions, equivalent to planting 25,000 trees, and conserving 270 million liters of water, enough to fill 109 Olympic-sized swimming pools.5
Good for suppliers, retailers, consumers, and good for the planet too! Apeel-Protected Organic Apples are available in grocery stores across the United States.
1 Updated Supermarket Shrink Estimates for Fresh Foods and Their Implications for ERS Loss-Adjusted Food Availability Data, 2016
2 The Packer, Fresh Trends, 2020, and Washington organic apples show steady growth, 2021
3 Apeel, Independent research conducted with n=500 US frequent organic apple buyers, September 2021
4 Apeel, Values represent the average percent reduction, using the total number of salable apples from bulk holdbacks, across all holdback sets from August 24th, 2020 to July 6th, 2021 in the following conditions: Retail shelf data captured after 21 days cold storage, then 7 days ambient. Box assumed to be size 88 bulk apples, 40lb box.
5 Apeel, Based on waste reduction measured during 2020-2021 retail programs. Assumes 50/50 split between size 88 and 138 apples. GHG and water metrics calculated using Apeel's third-party-reviewed LCA methodology, an example of which can be found here.
Source of consumer testimonial: “Apeel-Protected Apple Consumer Experience Study” Conducted by Ipsos on Behalf of Apeel Sciences, June 2021