After Jeff was in the fridge for a few days, the fresh strawberries became blurred?
Bathing them with weak ultraviolet rays from LEDs can increase their storage life by more than double, while preserving compounds that can bring color and health benefits to fruits.
Strawberries must be picked when they are close to maturity, and the fruit is prone to fungal diseases, limiting its shelf life.
Previous experiments have shown that the fruit will last for a longer period of time soon after harvest, exposed to strong light of sterilized ultraviolet rays.
However, the UV rays used are harmful to human beings.
In addition, the bulbs that produce it do not work well at the temperature of the refrigerator, because they contain mercury, so care needs to be taken.
Steven Britz of the USDA food ingredients and health laboratory in Beltsville, Maryland, wants to know if the recently developed UV LEDs will be a better choice.
Based on materials similar to those used in blue light
UV disc player, UV-
LEDs work well in cold conditions and they emit less wavelength hazards than those emitted by mercury bulbs.
They are also very efficient, so there is almost no need for electricity to run.
Britz said he discussed the idea with a refrigerator maker who "challenged us to see if we can extend the life of a strawberry refrigerator by 50 ".
Britz has built a prototype with engineers from LED manufacturer sensor electronics technology company from Columbia, South Carolina to illuminate the store-
Buy strawberries in the 95 humidity refrigerator.
After 9 days, the strawberries were not moldy, kept most of the moisture and lost very little health-more than double the life of the untreated fruit refrigerator
Promote the compound of Huaqing pigment that gives them color.
Britz will present the results at this week's laser and electronic conference
Optical equipment in San Jose, California.
"In theory, you should be able to do it with other fruits," Britz told the New Scientist . ".
He imagined that there would be UV rays in the future household refrigerators.
Moisture-proof drawer with UV
The automatically opened led will only open when the door is closed.
The supermarket can display the fruit in the cold box, prevent UV leakage, and turn off the led when the customer opens.
UV treatment is good, "because it's surface treatment, and that's where all the corruption is," said Randy vorobo, a food safety researcher at Cornell University, who was not involved in the study.
The trick, he says, will ensure that every part of the strawberry is exposed to light.
"If you have any shadows, you won't get any protection," he said . ".