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• 第2762期:The science of making fruits and veggies last longer(5)

  So let's just say that's not what we expected when we first approached them to talk about extending the life and quality of fresh products.↳可以说，当我们最初带着延长新鲜农产品寿命与品质的想法去找他们时，得到的回应完全出乎我们的意料。But we can't change this thinking alone. And we're not a silver bullet to end food waste ourselves. But thankfully there are lots of start-ups, scale-ups, organizations and individuals all around the world working to transform this post-harvest space. And we're optimistic that our one small innovation, using common ingredients inspired by the ancient wisdom of plants, is playing its part and having an impact, reinventing the food system and helping to create abundance for all. Thanks so much.但仅靠我们自己无法改变这种思维方式，我们也不是解决食物浪费的万能钥匙。幸运的是，全球还有许多初创公司、成长型企业、组织和个人，一起努力改变采后处理这一领域。我们很乐观，相信我们这项小小的创新——用植物的古老智慧启发的常见成分——正在发挥作用，正在产生影响，帮助重塑食物系统，并为所有人创造更多的丰盈。非常感谢。Thank you.谢谢大家。Incredible, thank you, Jenny.太棒了，谢谢你，珍妮。I feel like, when I buy avocados and then I bring them home, and then I blink and they are rotten. How long could you extend the shelf life of an avocado?↳我常常觉得，我一买牛油果回家，眨眼间它们就烂了。你们能把牛油果的保质期延长多久呢？In your experience, maybe you have this, too, there's like a day, a day and a half when they're like, perfect. Like, avocado toast, cuttable, before you’re like, do I sacrifice them to guacamole? And so it takes that day and a half and extend it to four days. Maybe you're actually going to have a chance to use it before you throw it away.根据你的经验，你可能也遇到过这种情况：牛油果只有大约一天或一天半的时间是最佳状态——可以完美做牛油果吐司，切开正合适。过了这段时间，你就要考虑是不是只能做成鳄梨酱了。而我们的技术能把那一天半的最佳时间延长到四天。这样，你可能真的能在它坏掉前用得上。So you're more than doubling. And when you're spraying things that don't have a shell, does it have a taste or a smell or anything?所以你们等于是把时间延长了一倍多。那么当这种涂层用在没有硬壳的食物上时，会不会带有味道或气味呢？No, they're very neutral. So no taste, no smell. You saw we used a little of it. It's like a strange thing we do around the office, which is like, eat the fruit, lick the surface, like, confirm that. But we've also done it with credible other institutions, like universities doing these blind taste tests with strawberries. And you can't tell that there's anything on them.不会，它们非常中性，没有味道，也没有气味。你看到我们只用了一点点。在办公室里我们甚至有个奇怪的小实验——吃水果后舔一舔表面，来确认这点。但我们也和一些权威机构合作过，比如大学，用草莓做过盲测，结果是人们完全分辨不出来水果表面有任何东西。Amazing. 太棒了

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• 第2761期:The science of making fruits and veggies last longer(4)

  So thinking about replacing a standard waxing step, for example.比如说，可以考虑用这种方式来取代传统的水果打蜡工序。We've made good progress since those early days in the garage. We've established a supply chain for responsibly sourced, high-purity ingredients. We've demonstrated safety and effectiveness to regulators in the US, the European Union and more than 40 additional countries around the world. And while we're still relatively small and early in our journey, we have a presence in about 10 markets worldwide.自从在车库里起步的那些早期日子以来，我们已经取得了显著的进展。我们建立了一个负责任的供应链，能够提供高纯度的原料。我们向美国、欧盟以及全球40多个国家的监管机构证明了这一方法的安全性与有效性。虽然我们依然是一个相对小型、处于早期阶段的公司，但如今我们已经进入了全球约10个市场。What I'm most proud of, though, it's why we got into all of this in the first place. And that is that since 2021, when we started measuring, we've prevented 166 million pieces of produce from going to waste. In doing that, that's avoided the emissions of more than 29,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions, which is equivalent to planting 485,000 trees and saved almost seven billion liters of water, or enough to fill 2,800 Olympic-sized swimming pools.让我最自豪的，其实正是我们最初投入这一切的原因。自从2021年开始有数据统计以来，我们已经阻止了1.66亿件农产品的浪费。这样做避免了超过29,000公吨的温室气体排放，相当于种植了48.5万棵树，并节省了近70亿升水——足够填满2,800个奥运标准泳池。Thank you.谢谢大家。What we're also excited about is the opportunity to add a little extra peel to help small growers get their unique varieties of fruits and vegetables to market with more confidence. This is especially important in places that don't have widespread or reliable access to refrigeration, like with these regional mango varieties. This could mean that a greater diversity of fruits and vegetables could be more available to more people.我们同样感到兴奋的是，这项技术还能帮助小型种植户，把他们独特的水果和蔬菜品种更有信心地推向市场。尤其是在那些缺乏广泛或可靠冷藏条件的地区，比如某些地区特有的芒果品种。这就意味着，将来更多样化的水果和蔬菜能被更多人享用。The work, though, is far from done. We've unfortunately encountered food and agriculture companies that have a really hard time seeing past the food waste status quo. "Shrink," as it's called in the industry, it's just accepted as a normal part of doing business. And disappointingly, we’ve had some folks -- producers, packers and retailers -- tell us, "Well, the waste bin is kind of my best friend. The more that people throw away, the more they have to come back and buy again."不过，这项工作距离完成还很遥远。不幸的是，我们遇到过一些食品和农业公司，他们很难突破对“食物浪费”的固有认知。在业内，“Shrink”（损耗）被认为是经营活动中的正常部分。更令人失望的是，一些生产商、包装商和零售商甚至直言：“垃圾桶算是我的好朋友。人们扔掉的越多，他们就得回来买得越多。”

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• 第2760期:The science of making fruits and veggies last longer(3)

  So we took a test batch of material that we made using leftover tomato peels, since those are rich in these fatty acids and glycerides. We dipped those limes in a bowl of these ingredients in water and set them aside to dry. And then we waited. And we saw that we could add an extra week of freshness to these limes.↳于是，我们利用番茄加工后剩下的番茄皮制作了一批测试材料，因为它们富含脂肪酸和甘油酯。我们把这些指橙浸泡在装有这些成分的水碗里，然后放在一旁晾干。接着我们等待，结果发现，这些指橙的保鲜期竟然延长了一整周。And when we saw that for the first time, we were like, "Shut the front door! Oh my God, this might actually work." So we then went and wanted to apply this little bit of extra peel to all other kinds of fruits and vegetables. Bananas, avocados, limes, green beans, tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers, berries, like, you name it. And what we saw, amazed and quite frankly, still amazes us. This concept works for dozens of categories, things that need to ripen before you eat them, things that don't. Things that have edible peels, non-edible peels. We even saw that with protected blueberries, we could retain vitamin C levels at higher levels for longer than unprotected blueberries. And tomatoes could be harvested later, not when they were green and tasteless, but when they were red and actually ripe, and they'd still have enough time to get into your homes.↳当我们第一次看到这个结果时，我们的反应是：“不会吧！天啊，这居然真的有用！”于是我们接着尝试把这层“额外果皮”应用到其他各种水果和蔬菜上。香蕉、牛油果、青柠、四季豆、西红柿、甜椒、黄瓜、浆果——你能想到的几乎都试了一遍。而结果让我们震惊，甚至直到今天依然觉得不可思议。这一概念适用于几十种不同类别的农产品：有些需要成熟后才能吃，有些不需要；有的果皮可食用，有的不可食用。我们甚至发现，在处理过的蓝莓中，维生素C的含量能保持更高水平，而且维持的时间比未经处理的蓝莓更久。而西红柿则可以等到真正红熟、味道香甜时再采摘，而不是在青涩无味时提前收获——同时还能保证有足够的时间运送到消费者手中。And we love that it really takes so little material, the little bit of extra peel we add to an average avocado, for example, that's equivalent in weight to a 10th of a small raisin. And even though these materials are, of course, they're edible, you can wash them off by just rubbing under running water. We also, the more that we learned about the fresh produce supply chain today, we realized we could integrate into how these are processed in these packing houses before they're sent to grocery stores.更让我们喜欢的是，这其实只需要极少的材料。比如，给一个普通牛油果增加的那层“额外果皮”，重量大约只相当于一颗小葡萄干的十分之一。而且这些成分本身当然是可食用的，但你只需在流水下轻轻揉搓就能将其洗掉。随着我们对当今新鲜农产品供应链的进一步了解，我们还意识到，这一工艺可以直接融入到分拣包装环节，在水果和蔬菜送往超市之前完成。

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• 第2759期:The science of making fruits and veggies last longer(2)

  And then all of this leads to a pretty narrow set of fruits and vegetables that are available in stores today relative to the amazing diversity of what's really out there. And so it's really like the categories that can survive storage and transportation that are commonly available. And those aren't always the ones that taste best or have the highest density of nutrients. So my friends wanted to approach this differently.↳这一切最终导致了一个问题：相较于自然界中丰富多样的水果和蔬菜，我们今天在商店里能买到的品类其实非常有限。基本上只有那些能够在储存和运输过程中幸存下来的品类才会常见。但这些并不一定是味道最好的，或者营养密度最高的。于是，我的朋友们想用一种不同的方式来应对这个问题。And we led first with some questions. How do plants protect themselves? Well, with a peel. Plants, just like us, have a skin or a peel, technically called the plant cuticle, and that helps to protect them from moisture loss, oxidation and infection. And what are those peels made of? Fatty acids, glycerides. That's what's the important part. And these are ingredients found universally in all plants. In the peel, pulp and seeds, and including in plants that we already eat. Different fruits have different shelf lives because of the thickness and arrangement of these materials in those peels.我们首先提出了一些问题：植物是如何保护自己的？答案是果皮。植物和我们一样，也有一层“皮肤”，学术上称为“角质层”，它能帮助植物抵御水分流失、氧化以及感染。那么这些果皮由什么构成呢？主要是脂肪酸和甘油酯——这才是关键所在。而这些成分在所有植物中普遍存在，不论是果皮、果肉还是种子，甚至在我们日常食用的植物中也都有。不同水果的保鲜期长短，其实和这些物质在果皮中的厚度与排列方式有关。So the idea then is: Can we take these harmless, edible, plant-based ingredients, apply them in a thin layer on the surface of fresh fruits and vegetables to help reinforce the existing natural peel? And if you do that, can you help to retain peak flavor, texture and nutrients for longer without reliance on refrigeration, pesticides, waxes or plastics?于是，想法就诞生了：我们是否可以利用这些无害、可食用的植物性成分，把它们涂覆在新鲜水果和蔬菜的表面，形成一层薄膜，来强化原本的天然果皮？如果能做到这一点，是否就能在无需依赖冷藏、农药、蜡涂层或塑料包装的情况下，延长食材的最佳风味、口感和营养？And so that's what James, Lou and I, that's why we founded Apeel Sciences and ultimately headed to James's garage to try and figure out. We started first by partnering with a small local grower, and we tested the idea on this category you may not have heard of called finger limes. They are literally finger-shaped, and when you cut them open, the pulp is in the shape of beads, like caviar. They are delicious, and they’re super fragrant. But once they’re picked, that grower had maybe about seven days before their organic limes would start to dry out and the skin would start to change color. And that was even with refrigeration.↳于是，这就是我、詹姆斯和路易斯创立 Apeel Sciences 的原因。我们最终跑到詹姆斯的车库里，开始动手实验。起初，我们与一家本地的小型种植户合作，把这个想法应用到一种你可能没听说过的水果——“指橙”（finger limes）上。它们真的像手指一样细长，当你切开时，果肉呈现出一颗颗像鱼子酱般的珠粒，味道鲜美，香气浓郁。但问题是，一旦被采摘下来，这些有机指橙大概只有七天的时间就会开始干瘪、果皮变色——即便是在冷藏条件下也是如此。

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• 第2758期:The science of making fruits and veggies last longer(1)

  When you pick a piece of fruit off a tree, it's like a ticking time bomb. It's literally this living and breathing thing that's slowly cannibalizing its own stores of energy and nutrients, just trying to stay alive until it ultimately gets eaten by microbes or some other animal, like us. Have you ever wondered why that is and what could be done about it?↳当你从树上摘下一颗水果时，它就像一颗正在倒计时的定时炸弹。它实际上是一个还在“呼吸”的生命体，会慢慢吞噬自己储存的能量和养分，只为了尽可能维持生存，直到最终被微生物或其他动物（比如我们人类）吃掉。你有没有想过这是为什么？以及对此能做些什么？My journey in trying to figure that out started in the spring of 2013. I'm finishing up my postdoctoral research in chemistry at the University of Santa Barbara, California. And all that really means is I’m a huge nerd and I've been in school for way too long. And I'm trying to figure out how to put all that training to meaningful use. So two of my lab mates, James Rogers and Louis Perez, invite me to dinner. But it turns out to be a pitch disguised as dinner, and they opened by totally flooring me with some staggering stats.我试图弄清这个问题的旅程开始于2013年春天。那时我正在加州圣塔芭芭拉大学完成化学博士后的研究。说白了，就是我这个超级书呆子在学校里待得太久了，现在在思考如何把这些年接受的训练用在真正有意义的事情上。于是，我的两个实验室伙伴詹姆斯·罗杰斯和路易斯·佩雷斯邀请我共进晚餐。但事实证明，那顿饭其实是伪装成晚餐的“推销会”，而他们一开口就用一些惊人的数据震撼了我。A third of the food that we produce worldwide is lost or wasted before it ever has a chance to be eaten. For fresh fruits and vegetables, that number is a half. And waste is a problem at every single step of the supply chain. From the farm, trying to get it to market, in stores, restaurants and in our homes. And it's not just a waste of the food. It's a waste of the land, water, fertilizers, labor, energy, fuel, packaging and money out of farmers' and our pockets. If global food waste was a country, it'd be the third-highest emitter of greenhouse gases after China and the US.↳全球所生产的食物中，有三分之一在被吃掉之前就已经损失或浪费了。而在新鲜水果和蔬菜方面，这个比例更是高达二分之一。而浪费的问题存在于供应链的每一个环节：从农场，到运输市场，再到商店、餐厅，甚至是我们的家庭。而这不仅仅是食物的浪费，更是土地、水资源、化肥、劳动力、能源、燃料、包装，以及农民和我们自己口袋里的金钱的浪费。如果把全球食物浪费看作一个国家，那么它的温室气体排放量将位居世界第三，仅次于中国和美国。For decades, all around the world, we've relied heavily on a surprisingly small number of ways to help fruits and vegetables last longer after harvest. These have gotten us a really long way, but they also have their challenges. Refrigeration is a massive energy suck, a significant source of emissions, and it's expensive. It's unfortunately why a lot of places around the world don't have access to refrigeration. Designer pesticides aren't great for our long-term health or the environment. Waxes, some can be plant-based, but a lot of them are also animal-derived or petroleum-derived, and they help make produce look better but not really meaningfully extend their life and quality. And packaging, that's just adding to our problems with single-use plastics and microplastics.几十年来，全世界主要依赖数量极少的几种方法来延长水果和蔬菜的保鲜期。这些方法确实在一定程度上帮助了我们，但也带来了挑战。冷藏消耗巨大的能源，是温室气体的重要排放源，而且成本高昂，这也是为什么世界上很多地方至今无法普及冷藏。至于人工合成的农药，对人类的长期健康和环境都并不友好。蜡涂层方面，有些是植物基的，但更多是动物性或石油提取的，它们能让农产品外观看起来更好，却不能真正有效地延长其保质期和品质。而包装，则让一次性塑料和微塑料的问题更加严重。

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