Avocados from Chile, bananas from Costa Rica, mangoes from Brazil—each year, millions of tons of fresh produce never reach our plates, lost to spoilage during long journeys across continents. At the heart of this waste is ethylene, a natural gas released by ripening fruits and vegetables. Confined in shipping containers, ethylene builds up, accelerating decay and leaving entire shipments unfit for sale. But now, a breakthrough from scientists at the University of Copenhagen and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) offers a simple, sustainable solution: modified clay.
This isn’t science fiction or synthetic chemistry—it’s earth, refined by precision. Associate Professor Heloisa Bordallo and her team, including researchers Karina Kovalchuk and Leander Michels, have engineered a form of clay that captures ethylene gas efficiently and safely. The innovation matters because one-third of all food produced globally is lost or wasted, with fresh produce among the most vulnerable. Current methods to manage ethylene often rely on chemical absorbers that aren’t biodegradable or safe for food contact. This new clay, by contrast, is natural, nontoxic, and can be safely ingested.
The team started with ordinary clay, which only weakly absorbs ethylene. Using a mild chemical treatment, they expanded the microscopic voids in its structure, creating more surface area to trap the gas—without compromising the material’s safety. The result? A clay that captures more ethylene than any previous clay-based material, holding it securely so ripening slows without contamination. As Kovalchuk explains, the goal is to embed small sachets of this powdered clay in fruit and vegetable packaging—much like the silica gel packets found in shoeboxes—offering a low-cost, scalable fix for supply chains worldwide.
Beyond reducing waste, the technology could transform taste. Because ethylene control allows for later harvesting, fruits can fully develop their flavor on the plant. "If we manage to solve the problem with ethylene, it serves two good purposes," says Bordallo. "First, we can reduce the global problem of food waste. At the same time, it can make it possible to harvest fruit later in the ripening process, so that consumers get fruit that tastes as it should."
The team is now refining the chemical process to maximize efficiency and environmental safety, with plans to test the clay in real-world packaging. If successful, this humble mineral could become a quiet hero in the fight against food waste—proving that sometimes, the answers are right beneath our feet.