LiVA is a startup dedicated to extending the shelf life of fresh food through natural bio-preservation and bio-control solutions, aiming to revolutionize food handling and enhance global food security.
The Background
Modern supply chain and consuming habits have increased the timeframe from harvest to purchase and consumption. Even today, we still face the unbelievable fact that for every fruit we consume, we throw away another, which suggests that existing treatments for post-harvest diseases remain specific and limited. In the US alone, it is estimated that the annual waste of fresh produce due to decay is $7B in retail price. This challenges not only economics, but also the environment: the total loss for society resulting from fresh produce waste is estimated at $1 trillion in direct loss and another $1.5 trillion in equivalent environmental cost. The industry is evidently starving for new approaches and technologies who offer all-in-one benefits, naturally based, clean, sustainable and efficient.
Bio-preservation, or the usage of good bacteria, has been covered by hundreds of studies and is considered an eco-friendly, bio-safe alternative to traditional chemical fungicides and bactericides. Bio-preservation refers to extended storage life and enhanced safety of foods using the natural microflora and/or their antibacterial products. Protection is achieved by two main activities: either competitive inhibition on nutrients and surface, or production of antimicrobial metabolites. With over 600 supporting academic studies, Bacillus Subtilis bacteria have been found effective against 23 different types of plants pathogens. However, its commercial use for food applications is limited, with due to price, ease of implementation, risk of cross contamination and viability during shelf life, among other reasons.
The Challenge
The main factor in controlling microbial growth on fresh produce is controlling the temperature and applying a strict cold supply chain. The reason is that the lag phase and growth rate of bacteria are significantly reduced at low temperatures. However, this method has many drawbacks, including costs, sustainability concerns, poor fruit quality and off-flavor. In reality, temperature fluctuations during logistics along with the fruit’s interior temperature that is linked to respiration make it impossible to maintain steady temperatures. As a result, the quality of fruits and vegetables and the pace of its rotting are both negatively affected by the temperature swings once they are available on the shelves. Therefore, the waste at the retailer and final consumer is relatively high and can reach between 30-40%.
A Menomadin Foundation Impact Investment: LiVA’s patented pre-biotic blend boosts good bacteria growth and inhibits pathogens, effectively doubling the shelf life of fresh produce compared to other options.
The Solution
LiVA’s patented pre-biotic blend creates the optimal environment to promote good bacteria growth, while delaying other pathogens. The main advantage when using LiVA is working alongside nature. LiVA is effective under a wide range of temperatures up to 40°C and under oxygen presence. In fact, LiVA acts as a protective umbrella during logistics. It reduces dependency on cold supply chain, allowing to ease practices and even increase storage temperature by at least 5°C, provide better quality, reduce chilling injuries, preserve natural taste and nutrition value, and increase fresh produce shelf-life by at least 100% compared to alternatives. Humidity is another factor: while fruits need high humidity (>75%) to keep fresh and prevent weight loss, at the same time it accelerates molds growth. With LiVA, high humidity is no concern, but a requirement to allow the motility of the good bacteria in-and-out of the carrier. This function of LiVA also allows to reduce dependance on high barrier packaging, opening the market focused on single-use plastics to eco-friendly alternatives, as oxidation is no longer an issue.
LiVA is a form of antimicrobial-active packaging with a market estimated to reach $22Bn by 2030. It offers a flexible solution with seamless integration, fitting the packaging to specific requirements. In applicative tests performed in our lab, LiVA was found effective even with fruits that were purchased from supermarket shelves, suggesting it can also be useful when applied by end consumers. As one-formulation-fits-all solutions, it is therefore highly scalable. Production can be 10M stickers per working day with a medium-sized printing machine. Production costs are as low as $8 per 2000 stickers, serving around 1T of fruit in a 500-gram packaging.
Although our focus market is highly perishable fruits, we also demonstrated efficacy with yellow cheese and bread, extending shelf-life by two weeks and one week respectively. LiVA was also found effective with cut fruits and salads, spreads, fish, meat, tubers and grains when stored for long periods. But that’s not all – LiVA can also be applied in the soil to stimulate the growth of saline-tolerant microorganisms, which demonstrates potential for making agriculture more sustainable. LiVA’s solution is eco-friendly, reducing CO2 emissions, increasing food safety and health, also in places where cold storage is not available, and reducing plastics, chemicals and preservatives in minimal processed fresh produce such as bread and spreads.
