All along the produce supply chain, resources like water, fuel, electricity, and packaging are used to grow, transport, process, and sell produce. Life cycle assessment translates all these inputs into the total environmental footprint of a piece of produce.

Our LCA studies measure the environmental footprint of produce both with and without Apeel, comparing the two to quantify the environmental impacts avoided. All of Apeel’s LCA results take the environmental impacts associated with making, distributing, and applying our product into account. See our most recent LCA report below for more details.

In order to calculate the positive impact of our technology, a key input into our LCA studies is food waste data: the amount of food waste prevented and the place in the supply chain this occurs. We measure our impact on retail food waste by conducting controlled, in-store pilot tests. In these studies, a set of control stores receive standard (untreated or waxed) fruit. The food waste rate in those stores is compared to a second set of stores that receive Apeel-protected fruit. Apeel has measured in-home waste impact in only a subset of produce types and end markets, mainly in Europe. While Apeel expects reductions in consumer waste for our products, our LCA methods take the conservative approach and only include changes in consumer waste when it has been measured using primary data.