Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Add Good to your Google News feed.
Google News Button

Avocados that stay ripe twice as long to be available nationwide

Say goodbye to food waste and black avocados.

Tperry
By TperrySep 24, 2019
Tperry
Tod Perry is a freelance writer from Long Beach, California.
See Full Bio

Americans are beginning to wake up to the idea that food waste is a serious problem. According to the USDA, 30 to 40% of the food produced in the U.S. is thrown away.

Food waste is a terrible drain on the average household bank account and is morally questionable at a time when one in eight Americans are food insecure.

Add to that, the environmental impact is staggering. Food waste now accounts for more than one quarter of America's freshwater consumption and approximately 300 million barrels of oil per year.

A big reason why so much food goes to waste is that it spoils or people refuse to eat items past their sell-by date. Fruit and vegetables aren't ripe for long, so they're often the first things thrown out.

RELATED: France has started forcing supermarkets to donate food instead of throwing it away

Apeel Sciences, a company founded with a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has come up with an ingenious way to make avocados last twice as long, and they will soon be available across the country.

Apeel created a special substance that it sprays on the fruit which mimics its natural peel. This slows down water loss and oxidation — the factors that cause spoilage.

"When we deposit them on a piece of produce and it dries, the result is that we form this special structure, this special barrier, which mimics that structure which is employed by longer shelf life produce," James Rogers, Apeel's CEO, told Wired.

Kroger, America's second largest grocery chain, announced last week that Apeel's avocados will be available in over 1,100 stores across the U.S. as part of its Kroger's Zero Hunger | Zero Waste social impact initiative.

In addition, the grocery giant will be adding Apeel asparagus and Apeel limes to its stores in the Cincinnati market.

RELATED: These 'public pantries' are popping up all around the world to help fight hunger

Apeel's products are a win-win for customers as well as the grocery stores. Longer shelf-life means less waste for stores as well.

"Apeel's innovative food-based solution has proven to extend the life of perishable produce, reducing food waste in transport, in our retail stores and in our customers' homes," Kroger said in a press release.

"Kroger is leading the way to alleviate the food waste crisis at every level, from its supply chain to its retail stores to the homes of over 11 million customers who shop at Kroger every day," Rogers said in a statement.

"We're excited to expand our partnership with Kroger to further prevent food waste while simultaneously giving families more access and time to enjoy healthy fresh produce," he continued.

food wastegrocery stores

The Latest

pizza story, food service, Reddit kindness, fast food manager, homeless man, meat lovers pizza, viral Reddit, unexpected kindness, pizza restaurant
Past Events

Employee scolded for buying homeless man a pizza, customer came up with an idea to help

anxiety relief, mental health, stress management, self-care, coping mechanisms, wellness tips, life hacks, crowd-sourcing
Past Events

14 anxiety-busting hacks people actually use, from dog walks to screaming into the void

women's stories, personal freedom, widowhood, viral stories, marriage, relationships, empowerment, social commentary, women's rights
Past Events

Women share the first things they did after their husbands died and the internet is in awe

More For You

research, Stanford, overactive brain, brain disorders, autism symptoms, brain, community

Puzzle brain and mother with autistic daughter.

Image via Canva

Stanford researchers announce breakthrough drug that can reduce autism symptoms

Science is always evolving and finding ways to empower and connect people. Thousands of incredibly creative, wondrous concepts, ideas, and specimens are available for exploration. The human brain is one such specimen that's so remarkably complex, the mysteries behind it lead some people to seek answers for their entire lives.

One particular brain condition, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), has been baffling scientists since they first recognized it. Researchers at Stanford might have just unlocked a drug that could offer an extremely effective, therapeutic solution.

Keep ReadingShow less
workout music, motivational song, exercise study, productivity, music theory

What's the best song to get you to work harder and faster?

Photo credit: Canva

Scientific study says this is the most motivating and energizing song of all time

Are you the person who drives over to the gym, parks, realizes you forgot your headphones, and immediately drives home to get them because you can’t workout without them? You’re not alone, and perhaps more importantly, science is on your side. A University of Edinburgh study on the effects of music and workout playlists found that not only does the right kind of music help boost your efforts when jogging outside or on the treadmill, but they also found the ultimate motivational workout song.

According to the study, the song “Eye of the Tiger” by Survivor got the most effort from fatigue participants compared to other songs that were selected. Anecdotally, this track has been on workout/motivational playlists and mixes on Walkmans to Discmans to iPods to smartphones as a multi-generational favorite, especially for marathon runners. Which is why it shouldn’t be a surprise that the song has over 1.6 billion streams on Spotify and its official music video has 1.1 billion views on YouTube.

Keep ReadingShow less
scientist, hiccups, hacks, hiccup cure, scientific research

A scientist shared his surprise upon learning of a hiccup "cure" with a 92% success rate.

Photo credit: Canva, pixelshot (left) and nicoletaionescu from Getty Images (right)

Scientist 'disappointed' we have a 92 percent successful hiccup cure and nobody is talking about it

If you’ve been around long enough, you’ve probably been taught some kind of trick for "curing" hiccups. Maybe someone—like Jerry Stiller’s character, Arthur Spooner, on the sitcom The King of Queens—has tried to literally scare you out of them. Or maybe you’ve trusted a more reliable source, like the Cleveland Clinic, which suggests remedies like briefly holding your breath, sipping cold water, biting into a lemon, pulling on your tongue, pressing on your eyes, breathing into a paper bag, drinking or gargling ice water, or swallowing a spoonful of sugar.

But as that source notes, there has never been a true expert cure for these irritating spasms of the diaphragm. Until...2021. Wait—wait? As Kareem Clark, PhD showcased on social media, a recently created device may have cracked the code as researchers documented in a study published in the medical journal JAMA Network Open. Apparently we may have been scaring ourselves for no reason.

Keep ReadingShow less
Atlantic Ocean, equatorial water, ocean currents, thermocline, Argo program, ocean science, climate change, ocean circulation, NOAA, water masses, salinity, temperature layers

The massive Atlantic Ocean is still surprising researchers.

Canva | Victor Zhurbas, Konstantin Lebedev, Natalia Kuzmina

Scientists stunned after discovering gigantic missing blob of water in the Atlantic Ocean

Scientists previously discovered a specific type of water mass called “Equatorial waters” in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Given the similarities in the Atlantic Ocean, they wondered if a similar water mass might exist there. In the fall of 2023, they discovered a large water blob in the Atlantic, which they named “Atlantic Equatorial Water.” Their detailed study was published in Geophysical Research Letters in a paper titled “Is There an Equatorial Water Mass in the Atlantic Ocean?”

According to the research paper, a “water mass” is defined as a body of water that originates in a particular region of the ocean and whose physical properties differ from that of the surrounding water. These properties include temperature, salinity, isotopic ratios, oxygen, silicate, nitrate, phosphate, etc. The study of these properties can offer insights into the oceanic circulation, mixing, and biochemical processes.

Keep ReadingShow less
saltwater crocodile, ocean travel, tidal currents, surfing, migration, apex predator, swimmers

World's largest living reptile surfs the open sea.

Image via Canva

Scientists reveal saltwater crocodile migrated thousands of miles by learning how to surf

The saltwater crocodile is the worlds largest living reptile with some weighing in at 2,200 pounds and reaching lengths of almost 20 feet. Crocodylus porosus is mostly found on the coasts of northern Australia, Indonesia, and the islands of New Guinea. It spreads out into the Philippines, Palau, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, and even parts of Southern China. These are massive distances to cover by sea for an animal that's not the best swimmer.

After over a year of studying 27 adult crocs using underwater receivers and gathering 1.2 million data points, some fascinating discoveries were revealed about their roaming behavior. A study first conducted in 2010, published in the Journal of Animal Ecology, and housed in the British Ecological Society database found the secret to their ocean travels revolved around tidal currents.

Keep ReadingShow less
Himalayas, tectonic plates, Indian Plate, Eurasian Plate, geology, plate tectonics, continental drift, mountain formation, Mount Everest, Tibetan Plateau, helium study, Stanford research, AGU 2023, delamination, seismic activity, earthquake risk, geodynamic research, Bhutan springs, Earth science, mantle rocks
Representative Cover Image Source: Pexels
Nothing ahead

One of the biggest countries is starting to split into two, a new study discovers

The Himalayas, one of the most majestic mountain ranges on Earth, rise so high that they make humans feel like mere dots. Beyond their breathtaking beauty, the Himalayas are crucial for geological studies. Recent research in 2023 suggests that the Indian tectonic plate, which forms the base of the Himalayas, may be splitting in two due to an unusual process.

The Great Himalaya Range, with its steep, jagged peaks, includes hundreds of mountains, the tallest being Mount Everest at 29,035 feet. About 40-50 million years ago, the Indian Plate collided with the Eurasian Plate, causing the Earth's surface to buckle and form these towering structures. Because both plates had similar thickness, they clumped together instead of crashing, creating the colossal rocky formations we see today.

Keep ReadingShow less
tectonic plates, geology discovery, Pacific Ocean, Utrecht University, seismic tomography, Pontus plate, geologist Suzanna, Ring of Fire, mountain belts

There's more to earth that we know.

Canva

Geologists stunned to discover part of the Earth that disappeared 20 million years ago

Studying tectonic plates helps geologists understand a landform’s geological history, locate rare metals, and predict future natural processes. In 2023, geologists from Utrecht University in the Netherlands made a stunning discovery while studying the Pacific plate. Suzanna van de Lagemaat, the team's lead geologist, found a massive, previously unknown tectonic plate once a quarter the size of the Pacific Ocean. They named it the "Pontus plate." A detailed study of this discovery was published in the Gondwana Research Journal.

The search for Pontus began unknowingly over a decade ago when researchers from the same university found fragments of old tectonic plates deep in Earth’s mantle using seismic tomography. This technique uses seismic waves from earthquakes or explosions to create images of Earth’s interior. Suzanna conducted detailed investigations of the mountain belts in Japan, Borneo, the Philippines, New Guinea, and New Zealand to reconstruct the lost plates, according to a university press release.

Keep ReadingShow less
Scientists absolutely stunned by a deep-sea bacteria that makes cancer-killing sugar

Red cancer cell, ocean, and a small fiery explosion.

Image via Canva - Photos by PhonlamaiPhoto's Images, Bella White, and Pobytov

Scientists absolutely stunned by a deep-sea bacteria that makes cancer-killing sugar

Most of us have known a person who has or is facing cancer. It's a brutal disease that kills millions of people every year. There have been many attempts to find solutions to a seemingly never ending problem. Scientists have been studying a new discovery that seems very promising. It involves a process called pyroptosis, and it's the new rallying topic in cancer research.

Scientists have found a sugar compound produced by tiny microbes living in the ocean. This deep-sea bacteria named Spongiibacter nanhainus CSC3.9 produce mannose and glucose, sugar, that can target specific cancer cells caused by a strain of human leukemia. This sugar specifically seeks out the cancer tumor and causes it to rupture and die. It was also found to be effective in a study targeting liver cancer found in mice.

Keep ReadingShow less
© Copyright 2025