Edeka expands Apeel to grapefruits and lemons

As of the start of this year, grapefruits and lemons also receive the plant-based Apeel protective coat. The longer-lasting vitamin C miracles are now available throughout Germany at Edeka, Marktkauf and Netto Marken-Discount. They are the newest members of the Apeel range after avocados, oranges, clementines and mandarins. The Edeka network is thus expanding its commitment to increasingly sustainable ranges and is once again setting a sign in the fight against food waste.

According to the Food Report 2020 of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL), 12 million tons of total or about 75 kilograms of food per person are disposed of in Germany every year. The Apeel formula of plant origin gives the surface of fresh products a kind of second skin, which acts like an additional protective coat. The Apeel protective layer ensures that less water from the inside can evaporate through the actual shell and at the same time less oxygen can penetrate from the outside.

An optimal microclimate is created under the second skin: the fruit can continue to breathe while the maturation process slows down considerably. This means that Apeel products stay fresh for longer – with an unchanged enjoyment experience, as neither the taste nor the smell of the food is affected.

The shelf life of the products is significantly extended by Apeel – with consistently high quality. At the beginning of 2020, a pilot trial in 2,900 Edeka markets and net stores over twelve weeks showed that the amount of avocados that had to be sorted out in the market was reduced by 50% thanks to Apeel, while customer demand in the participating markets increased significantly.

Apeel is an innovative process developed by the US company Apeel. Vegetable fats – lipids and glycerolipids – are used, which are contained in the skins, seeds and pulp of all fruits and vegetables. Accordingly, the Apeel protective layer consists of components that are also consumed regularly as part of a normal diet. Thus, Apeel differs in principle from approaches in which a synthetically produced sugar derivative is applied.