An Australian company has come to the rescue of avocado lovers around the world with technology that stops the fruit from turning brown, so people can have fresher avocados for longer.
Once avocados are cut open, oxygen in the air causes the flesh to turn brown due to the presence of the polyphenol oxidase enzyme.
But the Natavo Zero by Naturo is a 100 percent natural process – there are no chemicals, additives or preservatives added – that can give avocados a shelf-life of at least 10 days, even after the packaging is opened.
The idea for the product came about four years ago when Jeff Hastings, director of Naturo, realised the avocado industry had an issue with trying to stop the fruit from browning.
“I proceeded to investigate a range of technologies that would achieve that,” Hastings said.
Some of his approaches included using antioxidants and water blanching by trialing the technologies in various conditions and using a range of parameters.
Six months into the experimentation, Hastings realised the key was “turning off” the enzymatic process.
“Once we understood what was causing the browning that ripens the avocado, we set about to work out a way of interfering with that or manipulating that process,” Hastings said.
As there was nothing on the market like the Natavo Zero, Hastings had to start from scratch. This included a great deal of analysis around microbiology.
“It was a quite exhaustive and time consuming process, but we persevered and we ended up getting the result we wanted,” Hastings said.
The result is two models – a smaller one around 7m long, 2m wide and 1.5m high, and a second model that is the same length and height, but slightly wider.
The process
First, the avocados are cut in half and the seed is removed, which is typically done manually. The avocado is then sliced, diced or left as a half, depending on how the manufacturer wants to sell the product.
The avocado is then fed into the machine and undergoes a process to stop the browning.
Hastings said the technology is patented and has considerable intellectual property attached to it, so he can’t reveal much about the actual technology.
“[But] more broadly, it’s simply a combination of totally natural elements. For example, pressures, temperatures, air movements and humidity in a very specific combination and set of conditions which … inhibits this enzymatic reaction,” Hastings said.
Finally, the avocado is packaged and placed in a chiller or freezer and ready for shipping.
Developing the machine took around 12 to 13 months. Around four commercial prototypes were developed, with Hastings commissioning a product manufacturer to help him realise his ideas for the steel fabrication.
During the prototype development stage, the style was one of the most significant changes from the first to the current product, and fine tuning the machine to deliver the exact set of conditions that were needed.
“It was quite a challenging process to get pieces of steel delivering exactly what I needed. I knew the parameters and conditions I needed to draw the technology, but making that into a machine ... It took a lot of working out,” Hastings said.
“A lot of thermodynamics and a lot of engineering went into that, which is my background – I’m an engineer by profession.”
Naturo announced the product in early July this year, and the worldwide response was phenomenal, with publications such as Mashable and the Guardian running stories.
Hastings said he has now received enquiries from around 22 different countries.
Despite the general public’s interest in the product, Hastings always had the commercial industry as a target market in mind when he was developing the product.
He also considered the consumer, who he recognised often feels frustrated when they cut into an avocado and see that it’s brown or is of low quality.
“[This technology] allows the consumer can see what they’re getting before they buy it – they can see the cut pieces of avocado and know they’re not buying [a bad avocado],” Hastings said.
But while Hastings is focused on the commercial side of the Natavo Zero, he hasn’t completely ruled out the option of a product that can be used at home.
“The answer is yes, we think we can do a home version, but it’s not on our radar right now because as a company we’re so busy on the commercial-scale equipment,” he said.
“But in principle it’s possible and in principle we’re interested to see what we can do there.”