Thermal adaptive edible coating

Everipe is developing Thermal Adaptive Edible Coating, a plant-based postharvest technology designed to stabilize perishable produce under temperature variability and weak cold-chain conditions. We are currently in the laboratory validation phase, focusing on emerging-market supply chains. The technology was inspired by challenges observed while working with smallholder farmers in Sub Saharan Africa. Despite improvements in yields, a large portion of harvested produce was still being lost after harvest due to inadequate storage, long transit route, postharvest diseases, and market delays. Existing preservation systems often depend on uninterrupted refrigeration, expensive infrastructure, or synthetic chemical treatments that are difficult to access consistently in low-resource environments. TAEC is being developed as a low-infrastructure biological stabilization layer applied directly onto produce surfaces. The coating is designed to reduce postharvest diseases, slow respiration, and improve resilience to temperature fluctuations during storage and transport. Unlike conventional waxes or rigid cold-chain approaches, Everipe is exploring adaptive coating behavior that helps produce tolerate imperfect logistics conditions rather than assuming temperature stability will always exist. Our initial focus areas include: • Fruits (avocado, mango, pineapple, papaya) • Vegetables (tomato, capsicum, chilli, cucumber, French beans) • Cut flowers with potential air-to-sea freight transition applications

To date, we have conducted customer discovery with 6 exporters and 6 supply-chain stakeholders in Kenya, UK, Europe and Canada to better understand pain points around spoilage, transit delays, rejection rates, and rising logistics costs. Early feedback strongly validates the need for affordable, scalable postharvest stabilization technologies, particularly as global shipping routes become more volatile and energy-intensive cold chains become increasingly expensive.