Grantee Research Project Results
Final Report: Reducing Produce Waste via Novel Biopreservative Ingredients
EPA Contract Number: 68HERC23C0023Title: Reducing Produce Waste via Novel Biopreservative Ingredients
Investigators: Sheth, Ravi
Small Business: Imvela Corp
EPA Contact: Richards, April
Phase: I
Project Period: December 1, 2022 through May 31, 2023
Project Amount: $100,000
RFA: Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I (2023) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: SBIR - Air and Climate , SBIR - Homeland Security , SBIR - Water , SBIR - Sustainability
Description:
EPA Phase I SBIR award to Imvela Corp. on reducing produce waste via novel biopreservative ingredients as part of research topic 4A: Innovative technologies that help consumers prevent food waste in the acquisition, preparation, and storage of food.
In this Phase I SBIR project, supported by the EPA SBIR Program under contract number 68HERC23C0023, Imvela Corp. pursued development of a novel, natural bioprotectant ingredient focused on post-harvest produce, beginning with a focus on berries which are especially susceptible to food waste because of their delicate exterior skin. Before and throughout development, we had input from potential customers and end users with an interest in the final solution to confirm there was a need for the ingredient and that it would be effective in its intended market. The technology developed during this work, and through additional work after the award, can be applied to use cases in post-harvest produce beyond berries and is intended to build a base of technical knowledge that can be applied to food categories beyond fresh produce. The remaining development and commercialization work to be completed following the close of this Phase 1 work is intended to finalize development of and rapidly scale the bioprotective ingredient to customers in the post-harvest produce ecosystem.
Phase I research activities were geared towards identifying novel, microbially-derived bioprotectants against berry spoilage organisms. We identified primary spoilage organisms (SOs) from the literature and onboarded them from external sources and, in addition, we isolated and sequenced other unique SOs directly from berry samples through our biobanking pipeline. We developed a quantitative, high throughput assay to screen SOs in a liquid matrix that approximates berries. We generated supernatant libraries from microbes in our biobank in order to conduct high volume screens of supernatants, both individually and in combination, against key berry spoilage organisms. We began our screening process, and our initial screen indicates there are multiple hits that inhibit SO growth compared to media only controls.
The technical work completed in this award has clear commercial potential in the post-harvest produce preservation market, beginning with berries, as is evidenced by both market research, demonstrating a large market with gaps in existing solutions, and customer interest demonstrated through prospective customer conversations. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, around one-third of global food production, which accounts for approximately 1.3 billion metric tons, is lost or wasted each year. A significant portion of this waste can be attributed to post-harvest spoilage. While there are existing solutions on the market, they often fall short in addressing the spoilage problem adequately. Many of the available preservatives are chemical-based, raising concerns about their potential health effects and environmental implications. Fungicide treatments, applied preharvest, are commonly used on berries but they are not sufficient to prevent spoilage and often have long environmental half lives, negative ecological impacts, and are often prohibited in organic products. Consumers are increasingly demanding natural and sustainable alternatives, creating a clear gap in the market for a natural preservative solution.
By starting with berries and subsequently expanding to encompass all fresh post-harvest produce, and beyond produce in the future, the novel natural preservative solution will tap into a large market, address the gaps in existing solutions, and contribute to reducing food waste on a global scale. According to a 2023 Markets and Markets report, the global post-harvest preservative market is valued at $1.7B as of 2022 and expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.8% through 2028. Mordor Intelligence estimates fresh berries to make up roughly $25 billion of the >$100 billion fresh produce market. By beginning with berries and expanding to the broader post-harvest produce market from there, a natural preservative solution could drive significant revenue while having a transformative impact on reducing food waste, improving sustainability, and meeting consumer demands for healthier and environmentally friendly options.
The key problem we’re addressing is preventing the growth of spoilage organisms (SOs) in post-harvest berries, thereby reducing food waste and bringing financial benefits to the produce supply chain participants, including the end consumer. Imvela will produce a microbial bioprotectant that prevents the spoilage of fresh berries and extends the shelf-live more effectively than current solutions by exploring a larger, more diverse microbial space and implementing a high throughput, high resolution microscopy-based screen and computational methods. The final ingredient will be produced by a consortia of microbes that have antifungal properties.
Summary/Accomplishments (Outputs/Outcomes):
Figure 1. Microbial colonies isolated from organic strawberry leaf samples cultured at pH 4.
We onboarded and identified 18 distinct strains associated with berry spoilage through both external sources and internal biobanking of microbes from berries (Figure 1), utilizing a state of the art high throughput colony isolation platform to perform isolation of microbes and sequencing of samples. This work led to the identification of 43 microbial strains spanning 26 distinct genuses. The taxonomy of these strains indicates we have isolated relevant bacterial and fungal SOs as well as GRAS strains of taxonomies that are known to be bioprotective; these bioprotective strains may be interacting with spoilage organisms in situ.
In order to generate data predictive of results achieved in the strawberry microenvironment, we established a high-throughput, quantitative spoilage inhibition assay in a strawberry matrix that can be built using automated liquid handlers (Figure 2). We validated our assay using the chemical inhibitor sodium propionate as a control. The assay utilizes optical measurements to quantify spoilage in individual wells.
Figure 2. Automation equipment was used to distribute a broth made from pulverized strawberries into 96-well plates for use in high-throughput screening experiments.
Additionally, we built a platform for high-volume screening of proprietary microbial supernatants in transparent growth media. We first ensured the success of our screen by creating and executing a spoilage organism onboarding pipeline in order to optimize the growth of target SOs in 384-well plates under accelerated growth conditions. We then generated a supernatant library containing >500 distinct supernatants derived from our biobank microbes. We used our supernatant library to begin our screen for supernatants that are bioprotective against relevant berry SOs. Our screen resulted in 2 hit supernatants that significantly inhibited growth of the SO compared to media only controls (Figure 3).
Figure 3. Treatments are sorted by SO growth (optical density). 2 hits at top of plot have significantly less growth than media controls (Dunnett test; n=6-12, mean control data in blue.)
Conclusions:
In Phase I, we onboarded relevant spoilage organisms and established all the methodology necessary to screen for novel bioprotectants against target SOs using high volume screening. We have also generated a high throughput berry matrix spoilage assay representative of the strawberry microenvironment. We have begun our screen and have preliminary data suggesting that putative bioprotectants from the screen inhibit SO growth. This yielded potential ingredient hits aligned to the success criteria, that would be the subject of future Phase II research efforts. This gives us confidence that we will be able to generate a natural bioprotectant solution that outperforms existing solutions on the market, and contribute to a significant reduction in food waste in berry products. This research foundation will also allow us to extend the technology’s application to other produce.
There is a clear, significant market opportunity for a natural bioprotective ingredient in the post-harvest produce market that we have validated both through market research and through conversations with potential customers. This need is driven by a high volume of waste at the expense of both the consumer and the manufacturer, (with ~40% of produce loss across the harvest to consumer journey), the lack of effective, natural solutions in the market today, and consumer and company desires to drive sustainability in our food systems.
The total addressable market size of our biopreservative is approximately $1.7 billion, within an expected CAGR of 7.8% through 2028. This market represents all post-harvest produce protectant products sold globally. We anticipate beginning the commercialization of the product in the berries segment of this market, which is roughly 15-20% of the post-harvest produce market, but rapidly expanding to the full post-harvest produce segment. Consumer food trends indicate that this market will continue to grow as consumers increasingly demand healthier, natural, and more sustainable products, both growing the overall demand for fresh produce as well as the importance of natural solutions and help meet the growing demand by reducing waste. Through conversations with potential customers and end users, we have confirmed their interest and willingness to purchase a solution that could meet consumer tastes through natural claims and improve their economics by decreasing waste while maintaining the cost of the preservative solution they use today.
Our biopreservative solution will offer important advantages over existing bioprotection options on the market today. Compared to existing protection options, our solution is a natural ingredient that allows for a clean label, in line with consumer tastes, is specifically designed for the strawberry microenvironment and spoilage organisms, ensuring that it will be effective in the primary market for the product, and depends on multiple mechanisms of action to drive synergy and high performance in the resulting spoilage prevention.
Our commercialization strategy for the bioprotectant ingredient will be consistent with other products we’ve brought to market. We have a small pipeline of early BD interest, and plan to spend the next few months rapidly building our BD pipeline to create a pipeline to scale our solution beyond the partner we select as our “lighthouse customer” and other early movers. We have built strong relationships across the food chain over the course of over three years of customer-focused R&D and believe we can leverage those relationships to scale this ingredient. A critical component of our commercialization plan is for us to retain the intellectual property of the solution, protected through both patents and trade secrets, which will allow us to fully capture the value for technological innovation.
To economically scale the final solution, we will employ the manufacturing strategy we’ve taken with previous solutions, balancing a final product consisting of strains sold at commercial scale with proprietary strains we will scale through custom fermentation with contract manufacturing partners. While we build scale for the ingredient, we will use a network of manufacturing partners to produce the final product, with the capabilities to blend, package, QC, and ship the final product directly to the customer or store the product as inventory.
The perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.