M’sian Invented A Sticker That Prevents Fruits From Ripening Too Fast

You folks watched The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (henceforth known as TC2B2 for succinctness)?

Loosely based on the 1922 short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald – known too for The Great Gatsby – the film follows the life of a boy-man/man-boy whose life is lived in reverse chronology.

zyoB II neM…

StixFresh

For those five people reading this article and the one wols dude still figuring out what to make of the caption above, I have one word for you.

StixFresh

While not quite TC2B2, a Malaysian company has created a sticker that in their own words “safely and easily extend the shelf life of fruit by up to 14 days.”

While it doesn’t reverse the aging process quite yet, this Harry Potter-esque magic wand equivalent for fruits does wonders by retarding the natural ripening process of fruits.

Like a plaster for fruits

How does it work? 

Hold your horses.

This isn’t witchcraft nor magic.

Nor has it to do with creepy-God-Playing eugenics.

“my hands are somewhat clasp….but i’m not praying…i’m playing….GOD….”

It’s plain and simple good ol’ Science.

According to a Vulcan Post article on StixFresh:

“The StixFresh stickers are coated with a mixture of sodium chloride and beeswax, which slows down the fruit ripening process by removing ethylene—the ripening hormone in fresh produce from the air around the product.”

Ethylene…hmmmm.. that sound familiar ain’t it?

A quick check on Bible Wikipedia reminds me that Ethlylene’s hydrate is ethanol, and ethanol is most commonly and jubilantly for some, known as drinking alcohol.

How did it start?

According to this World of Buzz article:

Not stopping at just an idea; Zhafri jointly developed StixFresh over an arduous three-year journey with numerous universities and institutes to bring it to live.

It was finally launched in 2017.

Imagine if just 50% of all complaints in Singapore were turned into ingenious products; we would all be millionaires by now.

See, cordial cooperation with neighbours is good right…..

Why is it important?

Like the light-bulb, StixFresh may just turn out to be monumentally important.

Using cutesy graphics to illustrate, we learn that in the United States alone, 52% of fresh fruits and vegetables go to waste even before reaching the consumer.

52%. That is a mind-boggling amount of food wastage my friends.

We learn too that this wastage amounts to “tens of billions of dollars.”

You know what, I don’t even know how many zeros are in a billion, not to mention tens of them.

These mind-boggling figures would eventually translate into something digestible; an estimated saving of USD$1,600 per US household annually.

I don’t know about you, but $1 600 is a lot of money to me, and I wised Santa gave big fat Ang Baos instead.

To quote from TC2B2’s screenplay:

“It’s a funny thing coming home. Nothing changes. Everything looks the same, feels the same, even smells the same. You realize what’s changed, is you.”- Eric Roth

With StixFresh, let’s hope our fruits stay the same. Forever.