Ripeness Sticker Coming to Supermarket Fruit 321
Adam Weiss writes "A biosystems engineering professor has just announced a "ripeness sticker" for fruit. According to this AP article, grocers throw out thousands of bushels of fruit a year because it ripens too fast (1 bushel is about 9 U.S. gallons). Mark Riley's RediRipe stickers turn from white to blue as fruit ripens. The stickers react with ethylene gas, a chemical which is released as fruit or vegetables ripen. However the article says "there are still bugs to be worked out: The stickers do not change color to reflect an overripe or rotten piece of fruit. Also, not all fruit produces enough ethylene to be detected by the sticker.""
Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Metric (Score:3, Informative)
Re: Metric (Score:2, Funny)
Or you could learn to use the archaic units we do.
You'll be amazed at the feeling of superiority you get by being backwards deliberately!
Re: Metric (Score:2)
> You'll be amazed at the feeling of superiority you get by being backwards deliberately!
Or even better, ask for US gallons!
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=1+bushel
1 US bushel = 9.30917793 US gallons
Re:Metric (Score:4, Funny)
How about a ripeness sticker that flips into an alternate universe where people like stickers on their fruit as soon as it senses my mouth getting near!!
Re:Metric (Score:2)
No shit...those stickers are a PITA. I hate it if they're on food that may be ripe, but, that you want to keep the peeling on for presentation (stuffed tomato or the sort), and when you peel the sticker, to get it all off...you often gouge the skin.
What about the old fashioned way for seeing if it is ripe, touching the fruit/veg? Works for me..although these days..it seems if pretty much ALL the "fresh"
Re:Metric (Score:5, Insightful)
The original article never gave a measurement of the number of fruit thrown out it mearly stated "thousands of bushels", which is akin to saying "lots of fruit".
I'm hoping lots isn't a unit of some sort or some slashdotter will try and convert it
Re:Metric (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Metric (Score:2)
Seeing as how some fruits float (like apples), and others sink (like bananas), and that probably adds up to about 50/50, we can assume it has the same density of water. (If something floats, it is less dense than the liquid surrounding it, and if it sinks, it's denser).
Therefore, a lot of fruit is about 12.8 mililiters of fruit.
Re:Metric (Score:3, Funny)
I'm more concerned about how many hogsheads to the bushel. Now that I know I can get 6.77 hogshead to the bushel [google.ca], I understand.
Re:Metric (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Metric (Score:4, Funny)
Is that Canadian football, U.S. football, soccer football, or Rugby football?
Re:Metric (Score:2)
-Eric
Re:Metric (Score:2)
Funny...I always thought 'pointers' were...
Re:Metric (Score:2)
I am not a Slashdot Editor, but as an American I apologize.
"... grocers throw out thousands of bushels of fruit a year because it ripens too fast (1 bushel is about 9 US gallons)."
For those of you outside the United States, that would be "... grocers throw out hundreds of hogsheads of fruit a year because
Re:Metric (Score:2)
Or 35 litres as everyone outside the US spells it.
Re:Metric (Score:2)
Re:Metric (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Metric (Score:2)
It would have been friendly of the editors to provide a metric equivalent for the large percentage of their readership outside of the United States. Running GNU units on 1 bushel tells me that it is just over 35 liters.
Actually, it would have been even more pointless than the gallons conversion the submitter (not the editors, they never bother to edit) gave. The "thousands of bushels" remark is just away of saying "lots", using a unit assocated with agriculture.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Metric (Score:2)
Speaking of Europe, at least in France, Germany and (doh) the UK, they teach the British English spelling and RP. I've heard, the same applies for Spain. And then, there is India.
Re:Metric (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Metric (Score:2)
Interesting...does that much US television make it overseas? I knew some did, but, I'd always imagined that each country would show the majority of their own programming. I mean, I would be that interested in watching TV from other countries...wouldn't
Re:Metric (Score:3, Funny)
I believe that is Quickie-Mart [thesimpsons.com] English....
Fudged? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Fudged? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Fudged? (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, they use carbon monoxide for that.
As long as they don't use hydrogen dioxide... (Score:2)
Re:As long as they don't use hydrogen dioxide... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Fudged? (Score:2, Funny)
Nah, you gave it a good try, so you get the credit AND you get to keep the extra O2. Just don't try to make my beer froth with that CO of yours.
Thanks for the conversion (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Thanks for the conversion (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Thanks for the conversion (Score:2)
Re:Thanks for the conversion (Score:3, Informative)
The farmers who told the Mexicans they'd give 'em a dime for every basket they filled.
And buyers who came in and said "How much to fill this basket?"
A cord of wood is how much you can fit in a farm cart.
It's not a "liquid" measure. It's a farmer's dry goods measure, based on the tools they used to carry the goods.
KFG
Re:Thanks for the conversion (Score:3, Informative)
I doubt anyone conciously decided, it's a matter of practicality. It's also not a liquid measure; it's specified in the US as "dry measure".
The baskets they used to hold the fruit are called "bushel baskets" or just bushels. How much fruit do you have? Count the baskets. I'm not positive, but I'd bet the basket was called a bushel before the measure of volume.
Re:Thanks for the conversion (Score:2)
1 cc = 1mg = 1mL of H2O.
Space, mass, volume.
Except the US system is Weight, Volume, and Space (pounds, gallons, inches or feet squared).
It's a terrible system, and I wish the US would get with it, but they have been remarkably stubborn. The auto-makers haven't been making it easy either. Working on any car made in the last 20 years will require standard and metric tools... and it sucks.
Re:Thanks for the conversion (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Thanks for the conversion (Score:2)
Re:Thanks for the conversion (Score:2)
How many bushels are there in a Volkswagen Beetle anyway? Or in a Library of Congress?
Re:Thanks for the conversion (Score:3, Informative)
mass doesn't matter (Score:2)
Re:Thanks for the conversion (Score:3, Funny)
Leave those fruit out to ripen long enough and you'll get something you can easily measure in gallons... and WTFITS units...
(WTFITS = What the F. Is That Stink? basd on a scale from 1 = cheap knock-off perfumes to 100 = skunk dead from terminal halitosislying in the hot sun for three days and sprayed with cheap knock-off perfume by a passing motorist ).
Re:Thanks for the conversion (Score:2)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._customary_units [wikipedia.org]
Re:Thanks for the conversion (Score:2)
Well, as far as gallon, etc, not going metric...we just never changed.
But for produce, the bushel makes sense to me. When you go to the farmers mkt, they sell in standard sized buckets...a bushel or half bushel. Heck, they have them that way in some grocery stores too....I guess it is just something I've been used to growing up in the South...and I mentally associate the measure with the physical bucket/basket they sell the produce in.
Won't Work (Score:5, Insightful)
Pay more for the stickers.
Throw out more fruit as people only choose the least ripe.
Re:Won't Work (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Won't Work (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Won't Work (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, the result of genetical engineering (or at least, good old selective breeding). Wikipedia says:
At one time, most canned and fresh pineapples were produced on Smooth Cayenne plants. Since about 2000, the most common fresh pineapple fruit found in U.S. and European supermarkets is a low-acid hybrid that was developed in Hawaii in the early 1970s.
Look for brand names like 'Del Monte Extra Sweet Pineapple Gold' and you know you have the sweet version.
Re:Won't Work (Score:5, Informative)
Enjoy sweet sweet pineapples!
m
Re:Won't Work (Score:2)
Seriously, if an experienced grocer can't open the crate and see how ripe / fresh the contents, how the hell does he stay in bussiness?
Re:Won't Work (Score:2)
Re:Won't Work (Score:2)
Re:Won't Work (Score:4, Informative)
Pineapple will not ripen after picked, it will start, at the base, to turn yellowish and indication that the flesh is getting softer, rotting which you want some of. While that would produce etheyle it would not get any better tasting. The pulling of the leaf test will kind of work it misses the reason behind it. You want a pineapple that is heavy for its weight, it has alot of water in it, and is still fresh so the crown is still green and the leaves have not dried out.
However the best indication for a good pineapple is to find out where it comes from, usally shown on a sticker or sign in store, and then know the temperature of that place. Since pineapple cannot be frozen or stored long time, reason you have canned ones, it has to come to the store from the fields. Pineapple picked during the colder time has more acid and less suger, thoses picked during the summer have more suger. So with you knowing the location where it was picked and if the plant is still fresh you can make a guess of when it was picked and how it will taste.
As for mangos they could use the sticker since they are best eaten when they are producing alarge amount of ethylene. However with mango you can detect that your self by smelling the fruit, if you get a strong smell it is ripe and ready to be eaten. Also mangos will ripen on the shelf, or using the old paper bag to speed up the process(larger consentration of ethylene causes them to ripen faster).
Re:Won't Work (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Won't Work (Score:2)
It should be heavy for its size. Since water wieghts more then the other parts the heavier it is the more water in the plant. Then since the fruits will loose water after they are picked the more water and wieght the better chance of it being fresh.
Re:Won't Work (Score:2, Funny)
Stuck a pineapple up it.
fruit rapes? (Score:2)
You'd have to pry that mango out of my cold death hands before you put that one in the microwave!
Re:Won't Work (Score:2)
Why would they choose the least ripe? I like to buy ripe fruit, and find it annoying when my fondling skills fail.
Re:Won't Work (Score:2)
over-ripe (Score:3, Interesting)
One half would indicate ripeness, the other over-ripeness.
What about nearby fruit? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What about nearby fruit? (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm not a chemical engineer but that sounds rather complex compaired with just picking up the food, looking at it, feeling if its firm, etc.
Re:What about nearby fruit? (Score:5, Informative)
Here is the video:
VIDEO [www.exn.ca]
Re:What about nearby fruit? (Score:4, Informative)
Stick a fruit that's a bit riper in a crate? The others will start catching up, because of the gas released by the riper fruit.
One bad apple. . .
That's why they try not to do that when they pack 'em.
KFG
Re:What about nearby fruit? (Score:2)
Re:What about nearby fruit? (Score:2, Funny)
I know, I am about to be told that "I'm new here"
I'll just... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:I'll just... (Score:3, Funny)
Not to be overly obvious or anything... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Not to be overly obvious or anything... (Score:2)
People are just too lazy to figure out how to pick fresh produce.
What about underripe fruit (Score:5, Informative)
The low Brix numbers measured indicate poor taste and nutrient levels, and are caused by too early harvesting, and speeding up growth with fertilizers and greenhouses (not enough time to accumulate nutrients from earth). Understandable, since this lowers risk for producers and allows them to ship long distances, for instance from New Zealand or Argentina. But consumers pay, because you need to eat more fruit and veg to get the beneficial effects, and they don't taste as well.
Note that this newspaper is very pro-trade, pro-globalization and generally rightwing.
Re:What about underripe fruit (Score:3, Insightful)
> they don't taste as well.
Sensible consumers don't pay. Not at the supermarket, anyway. Don't get me wrong - supermarkets are good at some things. But the fruit and veg sections are terrible, here in the UK as well. The produce is picked long before it's ripe, the idea presumably being that it'll ripen by the time it's purchased, but produce doesn't work that way, so what you get is a hard, tasteless p
Re:What about underripe fruit (Score:2)
Yes, the article goes in on that a bit. The fructose appareantly is a prerequisite for the plant to create other nutrients. So a low Brix value means low nutrients, but a high Brix value doesn't automatically mean the fruit is good, just that it is sweeter.
whatever (Score:5, Informative)
And actually, I don't see how this sticker will reduce the amount fruit the grocers have to throw out.
Re:whatever (Score:2)
But I do agree, this sticker is almost useless. If parents actually taught their kids how to check for fruit, things would be better - that is, if they actually ate fruit.
Re:whatever (Score:3, Informative)
Finally something I know about! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Finally something I know about! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Finally something I know about! (Score:2, Funny)
I, for one, welcome our Linux nerd overlords!
Re:Finally something I know about! (Score:4, Insightful)
I know, but there is one thing I can't understand. Why do they have that preview button? A real linux nerd would never use it. Oh wait...
Already done (Score:5, Informative)
Pears (Score:5, Insightful)
Just squeeze the pears for crying out loud.
So wait... (Score:2)
An idea.. (Score:3, Funny)
Teach your grandmother... (Score:3, Funny)
Uhhh... (Score:3, Insightful)
Looks like a solution in search of a problem, because it sure doesn't address the stated one.
a ripeness sticker? (Score:3, Funny)
liquid gallon vs dry gallon (Score:2, Informative)
You have: bushel
You want: gallon
* 9.3091775
/ 0.10742088
You have: bushel
You want: drygallon
* 8
/ 0.125
You have: bushel
You want: peck
* 4
/ 0.25
You have: bushel
You want: quart
* 37.23671
/ 0.026855219
You have: bushel
You want: liter
Bugging out (Score:2)
Well the bugs don't need a sticker to tell when an overripe piece of fruit is ready to be consumed or discarded.
Only very inexperienced fruit consumers do.
In the old days... (Score:2)
Kids these days with their stickers.
OR, you could put up pictures (Score:4, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Next Door Rotten (Score:3, Interesting)
protective coating (Score:2, Insightful)
Do what now? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Do what now? (Score:2)
No, but having seen people in the line at the supermarket and clerking behind the cash register look at a piece of fruit or a vegetable and go "What is this?" I can heartily say that these stickers might actually save a few of the dimmer members of our species from extinction. Then again, I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not. We have this idea in the US that you can
Quagmire version (Score:5, Funny)
"18 yet? Let me check the sticker....Giggaty giggity gig!"
ripe... please... (Score:2)
Instead of inventing some fancy sticker nonsense, how about just putting the ripe stuff out where people can get at it.
Why throw it out. (Score:3, Interesting)
According to this AP article, grocers throw out thousands of bushels of fruit a year because it ripens too fast
Why throw it out?
Why not ferment it and turn it ethanol to use a fuel?
Re:hasnt this been around for a while? (Score:3, Informative)
They've been talked about for years, here's a mention I found about a New Zealand/Oregon- based test:
http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/science/11/26/pears.
J