The Sustainable Food Security Solutions Offered By Liva Have The Potential To Be A Game-Changer For The Middle East

After Russia's invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, already high food prices skyrocketed, notably for grains and vegetable oils, in which both countries had sizable global export percentages. Three in ten of the world's wheat and barley, twenty percent of its corn, and seventy-five percent of its sunflower oil are all exported from these two countries. Still higher, at 50%, is the Arab world's reliance on them for wheat imports, despite the fact that wheat is the world's most important source of calories. Egypt, Lebanon, and Sudan are the three countries with the greatest exposure to risk. Since both Russia and Ukraine are important exporters of nitrogen, phosphates, and potassium fertilisers, production abroad is also impacted. The impact of increased energy prices on global food inflation has been significant.

Given that fact, about 50%-60% of cereal grains are lost during the storage stage due only to the lack of technical inefficiency. On a global scale, about 1.4 billion hectares of land is wasted, an area larger than Canada and China.

However, pointing out some of the sustainable solutions to such issues, Ifat Peled Dinstag, Co-founder & CEO, LiVA Bio-Protection Technologies Ltd. stated, "The most common and applicable way to protect fresh produce from microbial spoilage is by applying a strict cold supply chain and not breaking it until final consumption. The reason is that bacteria don't flourish at low temperatures. Even blueberries can be kept for six weeks in the right conditions as long as the cold chain does not break. However, this method has many drawbacks, including high prices, sustainability concerns, poor fruit quality and lack of flavour. If you ask retailers, they will tell you they don't have shelf-life problems, but rather quality issues, and this is why. LiVA tackles the exact pain points of fresh-producer exporters and retailers.” LiVA claims to create innovative bio-control and bio-preservation methods to safeguard crops and extend the shelf life of fresh produce and minimally processed fresh produce such as yellow cheese, fish, meat and bread, by at least 100%, compare to the same conditions. The technology is comprehensive and also reduces waste when storing grains and tubers for long periods, preventing microbial spoilage as a result of the storage conditions. It has been common knowledge for more than a decade that some human-friendly bacteria can be used for food and crop protection. However, their usefulness is constrained by the expensive cost and stringent handling methods necessary to preserve their vitality, which restricts their applicability. Instead of incorporating them as live cultures, LiVA has found a solution to circumvent this difficulty by organically encouraging their growth, naturally and selectively, using a patented pre-biotic blend.

In reality, cold storage extends fresh produce shelf-life as long as the fruits/ vegetables remain at a low temperature, but they ripen much more rapidly once they are available on the store shelves; as a result, the real consumption time for a consumer is significantly reduced during the process of transportation and retail display. This is why food waste at the retailer and consumer level is relatively high and can reach 30-40%. This happens because the fruit's soft tissues are destroyed and can't be recovered. It is impossible to maintain a strict cold supply chain from harvest to consumption, without any temperature fluctuations, due to logistics and changing hands of ownership. Even the fruit's interior temperature linked to respiration impacts the actual storage temperatures. The quality of the fruit and the pace of its rotting are both negatively affected by these temperature swings. Quality is lost when temperatures fluctuate. Studies demonstrate that strawberries and blueberries, whose temperature alters three times during the supply chain stage, were unmarketable after only three days. It harms the fruit's soft tissues, making it more susceptible to microbial spoilage when the temperature rises or changes dramatically. The same blueberries mentioned above now have an actual consumption window of two days.

It is estimated that cold supply chains account for 20% of CO2 emissions. Even while evaporative cooling chambers can bring the temperature down to 15°C, it is still much too high compared to the recommendation, and at least half the world's population lack access to steady energy. It is obvious that businesses need to figure out how to lessen their reliance on reliable cold storage facilities.

LiVA reduces the dependency on a cold supply chain and acts as a “protective umbrella” when the temperature fluctuates during handling, shipping and storage. As temperature rises, good bacteria take action and spread at the expense of harmful bacteria. This is the first available technology to increase actual fresh produce shelf-life at the consumer level, without compromising taste and fruit quality. The technology also allows to raise storage temperature and avoids the needless suffering of cold injuries, keeps products fresher for longer "on the shelf," and provides a more environmentally friendly option. LiVA's primary mechanism is not directed at killing bacteria but rather at preventing the development of pathogenic microorganisms. Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and Bacillus subtilis thrive when conditions are warm and moist. Both have gained widespread recognition for the positive effects they have on human health, plant preservation, and plant development. Extensive research into their bio-preservation ability has been conducted on a wide range of foods, from raw produce to processed fresh foods. LiVA's strength is in the very thing that scares most people: It works with nature rather than against it. There is no need to eradicate unwanted organisms so long as one can create the ideal conditions for the growth of the microorganisms as needed.

Reduced Food Waste Should Be A Top Priority In The Middle East

“There are various causes for food waste, thus offering a comprehensive solution necessitates taking multiple approaches. In my opinion, a major shift can only occur if all relevant parties work together. It's shocking that for every fruit we eat, we toss out two. To begin with, the real shelf life of fresh products is reduced by low quality. Soil quality and yield must be recovered and the use of dangerous chemicals needs to be decreased for this to be possible. More and more biotech firms are exploring ways to restore the soil's natural microbiome and keep it in good condition. Consumption awareness is another tool for cutting back on wasted food. If you often toss away more than 20% of what you buy, buying in bulk - even at a discount - is not cost-effective. Stores started selling pre-packaged fruits and vegetables since it's easier to keep track of inventory when referring to items in units rather than kilogrammes. It would be fascinating to see if this practice ultimately leads to less or more food waste. If a pack of apples contains six apples and one of them is rotten, the customer is unlikely to buy the remaining five, and the store will end up throwing away six apples instead of just one.”

Sterilising the packing facility to eliminate disease-causing organisms has unintended consequences. With LiVA it is possible to reduce some of the sanitisation practised at the packing house to allow the natural fruit’s microbiome to be effective. Similarly, too much soap washing is not recommended either. Using disinfectants eliminates both beneficial and harmful germs, weakening the body's defences against harmful microbes.

“Unopened packages of minimally processed fresh foods can be stored safely for a while, but the contents will go bad after opening. Typical methods of extending their shelf life typically sacrifice taste in the process. Using LiVA will reduce all of these costs and drawbacks. From its pre-harvest use as a soil health agent, through its post-harvest use in transportation, storage and ultimately consumption, LiVA represents a comprehensive paradigm shift in the treatment of fresh produce and minimally processed fresh produce. Instead of eliminating harmful bacteria, we encourage the expansion of those that pose no threat to human health. Because of our efforts, these bacteria, which are found naturally in the environments of fruits and vegetables, can thrive to the detriment of their competitors. We find that yeast and mould levels are decreased by an order of magnitude or more in the lab compared to the control group. Our efforts resulted in at least 100% shelf-life extension compared to the same conditions without LiVA”, stated Dinstag.

Roadblocks Of Embedding Sustainable Solutions Into The System

Farmers, distributors and exporters, wholesalers, marketers, retailers, etc. are just some of the many players along the fresh-produce supply chain, which presents a significant challenge. Each of them is focused on increasing profits at the expense of minimising waste and other negative effects on the environment. Having too many people with power slows down the process of making decisions and putting good ideas into action.

Without the ability to charge more for his superior product, the farmer has no incentive to invest in improving the quality of his crops. For a few days when the fruit is in his care, the distributor cares about quality, and cold storage ensures that it stays that way - at least superficially - without overlooking the influence of these methods at later stages, which are under his responsibility. The actual shelf life of fresh food once shops have stocked it is only two to three days. However, the farmer and distributor's prior decisions, including chemicals, cold storage, etc., led to the current predicament. It explains why we see more start-ups in the quality detection and monitoring field. These technologies show the actual state of the fruit and set responsibilities, even if the outside looks good. Implementing measures earlier in the supply chain is preferable for extending the shelf life of perishable goods, but who will foot the bill for these? Because of this, cooperation among all parties involved is essential. When consumers have a too-short shelf life and deteriorated quality, retailers have the capacity to impose change, and it is ultimately the retailers who pay the price, whether in terms of waste or brand image. The results of these surveys indicate that consumers are prepared to pay a premium for fresh, high-quality products that also happen to be nutritious. Fresh food sections can boost retailers' store revenue by 10% if customers have a positive impression. It is called the 'Halo Effect': Customers' perceptions of other departments at the retailer also improve.

Stretching further on this, Dinstag commented, “A problem like this can be solved easily with LiVA. LiVA showed great results when applied to strawberries just two hours after harvest, but it also showed significant improvement in the fruit shelf-life when applied to lettuce, raspberries, and pears purchased from a local grocery store without knowing what the fruit had been through or how many days had passed since harvest or storage. In the case of raspberries and lettuce, which are both very perishable and sensitive to humidity and high temperature, we extended the number of days they could be kept at room temperature from the time they were purchased at the shop until they were consumed by adding three extra days. These findings demonstrate the efficacy of LiVA's method, which can be implemented anywhere (even as a B2C model) to successfully lessen food waste.”

The technique developed by the company helps food last longer by encouraging the growth of germs that are beneficial to humans. It manipulates the growth of bacteria instead of destroying them, as is done in many other approaches. Its products are built around proprietary nutrient blends that are composed entirely of safe, edible substances. These proprietary mixtures have different applications – stickers as an integral part of the food packaging, sachets for larger open boxes or gel capsules for crop protection.