Pulping Your Fruit...

Originally I was trying to come up with a protective packaging that the grower would put the fruit in before transporting but I have come to the conclusion that that is only creating a bigger problem for myself. I am now thinking that my product will be available to consumers in grocery stores right next to the fruit.

A person picks a piece of fruit because it looks appealing to them. They spend time sorting through all the apples until they come to a specific one that calls to them for whatever reason. From there the consumer would reach for Fruit Armor (patent pending), instead of a small plastic bag, and place their piece of fruit inside of it before placing it in their basket. The Fruit Armor would be available to protect delicate fruits, such as apples, peaches, nectarines, plums and apricots, until the moment the consumer was ready to consume them.

As far as materials go, I am picturing a round form made of paper pulp. The pulp would be made from 100% recycled newspaper and would be 100% recyclable and 100% biodegradable. It has been used to package such delicate items as eggs and fluorescent light bulbs for years but has never been used for individual fruit protection. This material is ideal because it can easily be molded to the shape of those items and the fiber is relatively soft and cushions these delicate products by absorbing the impact.

Protecting Your Banana is no Laughing Matter....

Don't let this happen to you!





In researching fruit packaging I came across several funny banana protectors all which carry a certain (dirty/hilarious) connotation.



First we have the Banana Koolie. This is simply a neoprene sleeve for your banana. I'm not sure how well this product would work because neoprene is smushable just like the skin of a banana.






Then we have the Banana Guard. This device claims to fit over 90% of commercially available bananas. Apparently highly curved bananas can be straightened slightly to fit the upper curve and the very straight bananas can be bent ever so slightly to fit into the mold.




Lastly we have The Banana Bunker. (This is my favorite, mostly because it looks the funniest) It is a flexible, plastic device that prevents your bananas from being bruised. It fits almost any size banana due to its innovative design featuring open end caps (to allow thin ends to stick out) and a flexible and detachable mid-section. It comes in a variety of colors and with an informational video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P60CFNwvWlU

Aromatized Dishware: Midterm Review

This past Tuesday, February 2, we had our midterm review. Everyone's projects were based on the human interaction with food and Brittany and I did a project based on smell.

Seventy to seventy-five percent of what we perceive as taste actually comes from our sense of smell. Taste buds allow us to perceive only bitter, salty, sweet, and sour flavors. It's the odor molecules from food that give us most of our taste sensation. We wanted to see how we could play with people’s taste buds through smell by creating dishware that smells different than the item you are eating off it.

By eating a sugar cookie off a plate that smells like strawberries your brain thinks it is eating strawberry cookies. We hope that this product line could eventually carry many different scented plates to include smells like the ocean, crisp mountain air, and pine trees.

The project turned out really well and people did in deed think they were eating strawberry cookies while they stood in our box area and as soon as they walked away they would look at their cookie slightly confused because it no longer tasted like strawberry. It was a great success in my mind.

Protect Your Fruit

Nobody likes bruised fruit, which is part of the reason why I am proposing my fruit air pockets for industrial use in transporting fruit, and in my research I have found several other creative ways to protect your fruit.

These knitted fruit cozies are cute but I don't know how practical they are in actually protecting fruit.

Then there is this Hermes apple holder. They have created this lambskin apple purse specifically to protect your apple in a stylish way. If its between this or a bruised apple I think I'll go with the bruised because this holder goes fro $395, a little more than an apple is worth to me.







Then there are these banana hammocks. The ones on the right seem a bit impractical because not all bananas are shaped the same. While the one on the left seems like a practical idea in its simple design to fit all shapes and sizes...of bananas.



There are also these foam fruit nets that Harry and David often use in shipping their product all over the world. They allow fruit to be packaged next to each other in a box without casueing fruit on fruit bruising.




And then there are these blister packed blueberries. I love this design because blueberries are so easily squished and giving each berry it's own protective bubble seems like a great idea. However, I wonder how easy it is to actually get each berry out without squishing it because you'd have to push from one side to get anything out of a blister pack.





I hope that my fruity air pocket would eliminate the need for all of these products becuase not only would it protect the fruit in transportation form the growers to the consumer but would continue to protect the fruit up until the moment it is eaten.

Air Cushoning Cube

I envision my fruit pockets to be something like bubble wrap and having a cubic or somewhat
flat shape.

For the material I am thinking something like bubble wrap because bubble wrap is a pliable transparent plastic material commonly used for packing fragile items. Regularly spaced, protruding air-filled hemispheres provide cushioning for precious or breakable items.








Fruit is often put in situations where it can easily be dropped or knocked over and a cubic shape would stop it from rolling away.




This is another interesting shape because the somewhat round sides mirror the general shape of the most fruit while the flat top and bottom would stop it from rolling too far.

I want these!

Coca-Cola has always been very clever with their marketing. They not only come out with memorable ads but every so often come out with an interesting take on their otherwise classic look, and these retro cans are by far my favorite! I think Coke should reproduce these as a kickback can.

Here are some other great examples of Coke ads and collectible bottles


http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.toxel.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/cocacolaads6.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.toxel.com/inspiration/2008/08/02/collection-of-cool-coca-cola-ads/&usg=__BNoEW1BhyThiIl1lDG88vXU8bv0=&h=600&w=450&sz=145&hl=en&start=73&um=1&tbnid=GnEpa2nfQTAa9M:&tbnh=135&tbnw=101&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcoke%2Bbottles%26ndsp%3D20%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DN%26start%3D60%26um%3D1

http://badicalbeatsrecordings.com/images/WE8Bottles.jpg

http://www.clevelandleader.com/files/cavalli-coke.jpg

http://techtreak.com/img/cocacola_9595.jpg

Fruit Packaging

The way a fruit is packaged is determined by the type of fruit, how easy it is damaged, its shelf life, distance it is to be shipped, and its value. The high-value fruits are placed in trays that have pockets to hold individual fruits and are designed so that when they are stacked in a carton the fruits don't come in contact with one another. The less bruise-able fruits are hand-placed into cartons based on a pattern determined by the carton size and the fruit size and is designed so that the fruit fits in the carton with no room to move. This prevents fruit on fruit bruising during shipping.


If a fruit is not packaged in a facility at its picking site it is piled into trucks and transported to a packaging facility. Bruising and rotting is common during this process and limits the sellable product.


My thought is, why not have a product provide each fruit with its own plastic bubble? Such a device would create a protective air pocket around each piece of fruit and prevent all bruising. Less bruised product means more sell-able product and a higher profit margin. The fruit pocket could be made of a biodegradable recycled plastic and could either be circular or square. Such a pocket would allow all fruit to be piled into trucks and boxes without the worry of bruising. It would also eliminate the need for extra packaging material with delicate fruits. Another upside to such an addition to the fruit industry would be that when a fruit is to be shelved at a grocery store a stoker could just dump the fruit into its display bin instead of having to handle each piece of fruit.