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StixFresh

May 16, 2021

Ryp Labs, Formerly StixFresh, Goes Beyond Stickers to Protect Produce

Back in 2019 at The Spoon’s Smart Kitchen Summit, judges were so impressed by a company called StixFresh they dubbed it the winner of the event’s Startup Showcase competition. At the time, StixFresh was wholly focused on a single product, a food-safe sticker that, when affixed to a piece of produce, could protect against post-harvest bacteria, over-ripening, and premature spoilage.

Fast forward to 2021, and the company has since rebranded as Ryp Labs and expanded its capabilities for protecting crops after they are harvested. Its flagship product remains a sticker (which is still called StixFresh), but company cofounder and CEO Moody Soliman told me over the phone recently that Ryp Labs is now testing multiple technologies on different types of produce.

The company’s “core competency,” he says, isn’t simply about making stickers that prevent food waste. It’s about “develop[ing] formulations that can be applied to a variety of surfaces to combat post-harvest disease.” Hence the recent name change.

Protecting any given type of produce involves a two step process: finding the right formulation that can fight post-harvest disease and spoilage, and engineering a release vehicle for that formula.

Plants naturally emit compounds that can protect against disease and environmental hazards. What Ryp Labs essentially does is capture these compounds and use them in formulations that can then be applied to the produce to better protect it after harvest, a process that also extends the food’s shelf life. The specific application, or release vehicle, depends on the type of produce.

Stickers, for example, work well for larger pieces, such as apples, pears, avocados, and mangos. Ryp Lab’s patent-pending StixFresh product contains the aforementioned plant-produced compounds. When those compounds vaporize, they “cloak” the fruit, protecting it from bacteria and over-ripening.

Applying a sticker to a mango is one thing. Fixing them to every single berry in a case, on the other hand, would be far too unwieldy and time-consuming a process to be feasible. Smaller pieces of produce, such as grapes or berries, are better suited to other release vehicles, according to Soliman. 

Berries have actually been on Ryp Labs’ radar since 2019, and partly provided the inspiration for the company to explore release vehicles beyond stickers. For berries, a sachet that emits protective vapors can simply be dropped into a crate post harvest.

Other companies are also putting formats like sachets and edible coatings to work: most notably Hazel Technologies and Apeel, respectively. 

For Ryp Labs, the release vehicle and specific formulation each produce type gets depends on a number of factors, from when the formulation is being applied to the conditions in which the food will travel (e.g., cold storage versus room temperature). Ryp Labs works with each individual customer to understand the issues in their specific food supply chain. The goal is to match that customer with the best formulation and release vehicle without drastically interrupting the day-to-day operation.

Ryp Labs says it is already doing pilot studies with retailers and distributors and have seen a 15 to 30 percent reduction in losses on strawberries, blueberries, nectarines, and mandarins with its sachets and stickers.

Meanwhile, the company is in the final stages of development for its StixFresh product and plans to launch it to the consumer market in early 2022, most likely in the U.S. and Europe. Other products, including sachets, may be more of a B2B play, with Ryp Labs licensing them out to food producers and distributors. Soliman did not officially confirm as much, only suggesting that licensing its tech is an option on the table for the company.

Preserving other types of food and even flowers is also a possibility. As Soliman explained, Ryp Labs is essentially building a library of formulations that could eventually protect everything from mangos to poultry to freshly cut roses. That focus on the formulation could greatly differentiate Ryp Labs in the future. So while we might be seeing StixFresh stickers in grocery stores soon, those are just the beginning of Ryp Labs’ technological journey to better protect crops and fight food waste.

July 9, 2020

Wrap It Up: Innovation in Edible Solutions to Extend Food Lifespans (a Spoon Plus Report)

Suppliers, especially large warehouse distributors, have several strategies they currently use to extend the lifespan of produce. One is refrigeration. Produce can be stored in cold warehouses to slow down the ripening process and make it last longer. Another is to install vents in the warehouses to remove ethylene, the gas that causes fruit to ripen, from storage. Some warehouses even use gases like nitrogen and sulphur to counteract the effects of ethylene, thus keeping fruit preserved in an unripe state until they’re ready to ship to retailers. Some fruits, like lemons and apples, are also coated in an artificial wax to keep them from rotting.

All of these solutions have their drawbacks. Vents are expensive to install, using gases to regulate ethylene is not proven to be effective, and artificial wax is unappetizing. Regulating produce freshness at warehouses also does not help once that fruit or vegetable has left the supplier and is sitting on a retail shelf or in a consumer kitchen.

However, over the past several years, innovators have begun experimenting with new ways to extend the lifespan of fresh produce. These solutions are meant to be a more sustainable, healthy, and versatile alternative to current practices used in warehouses.

This report is available to subscribers of Spoon Plus, includes analysis of key players Apeel, Sufresca, Stixfresh, and Hazel Technologies, a look at opportunities in this fast-changing space, the impact of COVID and a look forward at what’s next.

New subscribers to Spoon Plus can use discount code NEWMEMBER to get 15% off an annual plan today. Go here to learn more. 

December 18, 2019

Sufresca Gets a $500,000 Investment For Its Edible Food Coating Solution That Fights Food Waste

Israeli startup Sufresca, who makes an edible coating that extends the life of fruits and vegetables, has raised a $500,000 seed round from agtech VC Rimonim, according to AgFunder News. The round brings Sufresca’s total funding so far to $1.3 million. 

Sufresca’s edible fruit and vegetable coating is meant to extend the shelf life of post-harvest produce and in doing so cut down on food waste in the home. An edible coating also eliminates the need to use plastic packaging, such a shrink-wrap, for produce items in the store. Sufresca’s technology uses liquid formulas that when applied to fruits and vegetables creates a “breathable coating” that the company claims can extend shelf life by several weeks. The approach is similar to post-harvest food waste solutions currently being done by Apeel Sciences, whose plant-based powder can be mixed with water then applied to produce to prevent spoilage.

While Apeel is currently focused on avocados, Sufresca is starting out with fruits and vegetables for which no edible coating solution exists right now. Think tomatoes, garlic, and pomegranate arils, as opposed to apples or oranges, which typically get coated in wax. The company says future products will include cucumbers, melons, bananas, and asparagus, among others. 

Coating fruits and vegetables is one way to fight food waste and reduce spoilage. There are a growing number of other solutions coming to market. Hazel Technologies makes biodegradable packaging inserts that extend the shelf life of fruits and vegetables. StixFresh, who won the Startup Showcase award at this year’s SKS, has created a sticker that when applied to produce releases protective compounds that cloak the fruit or vegetable to extend its shelf life. 

Roughly one third of the world’s food goes to waste each year, and 14 percent of that food is lost between harvest and retail, according to the United Nations. Startups up and down the supply chain are now testing ways to combat this problem. We can expect to see many more food preservation tactics like those of Sufresca and Apeel as the food waste problem gets bigger and we (hopefully) get smarter about fighting it. 

According to AgFunder, Sufresca, which was founded in 2018, is aiming to have at least some of its products reach Europe and North America within two years.  

September 20, 2019

Rotten Avocados? StixFresh’s Sticker Will Keep Them From Going Bad

Have you ever bought a bunch of avocados that ripened so quickly you had to throw them away before you could use them?

Well I have, and I’m not the only one. In fact, almost half of food waste happens at home, often because of scenarios like the one above. StixFresh is a new startup that’s combatting downstream food waste in grocery stores and consumer kitchens — with a sticker. They’re also one of the finalist companies who will pitch live at the SKS 2019 Startup Showcase in October.

We spoke with StixFresh cofounder and CEO Moody Soliman to learn a little more about these seemingly magical food waste fighting stickers. Check out the Q&A below then grab your tickets to SKS before they sell out.

Give us your 15-second elevator pitch
At StixFresh, we’ve developed a food-safe sticker that can extend the shelf life of fresh fruit by up to two weeks. This simple sticker can be applied at any point along the produce supply chain.

What inspired you to start StixFresh?
My co-founder and I both have an unyielding passion for bringing innovative technologies to market that ultimately improve people’s health, safety and quality of life. This is exactly what we saw in StixFresh — a technology that truly has the potential to change the world. It will not only have an economical benefit, but it will also have enormous social and environmental benefits across governments, companies and communities around the world.

What have you found to be the most challenging part of getting a food startup off the ground?
In a food tech startup, efficacy and safety go hand-in-hand. You are not only faced with the challenge of developing an innovative and potentially disruptive technology that has to work, but it must also be 100% safe. Because of our backgrounds, this has been our focus from the get-go. Nevertheless, this requires extensive R&D and product development work. This takes significant resources in the form of time and money in order to do it right, neither of which are a luxury for most startups.

How will StixFresh change the day-to-day life of consumers and the food space as a whole?
StixFresh will (1) significantly reduce fresh food waste by extending shelf-life via an all-natural process, and (2) maintain the food’s freshness longer, thus allowing many communities (especially developing ones) to consume fresh, natural, organic foods they were not able to access previously.

Furthermore, fruits and vegetables account for the largest portion of wasted food in terms of mass. So, by reducing the food waste that makes up a significant portion of today’s landfills, StixFresh will help reduce our carbon footprint and foster more responsible stewardship of the huge amounts of natural resources required to grow our food. StixFresh will not only help consumers save money, it will also help farmers, governments, companies, and communities provide food sustainably, as well as help address the issue of climate change.

Come watch Moody pitch live and at the SKS Startup Showcase next month! Get 25% off your tickets here.

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