Scientists have found a way to extend the freshness of vegetables by 10 days

Revolution in food storage: MIT scientists extend the life of fruits and vegetables using silk microneedles and melatonin. The results of the breakthrough research are published in the journal Nano Letters.

The global problem of food loss is finding a new solution. According to UN statistics, more than 30% of all food in the world is lost after harvest – an amount that could feed over a billion people. While traditional cooling requires enormous energy consumption and developed infrastructure, unavailable to many regions, innovative technology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology offers a revolutionary approach without the need for mass refrigeration equipment.

The invention is based on unique natural silk patches with hundreds of microscopic needles less than a millimeter long. These miniature needles painlessly penetrate through the skin of fruits without damaging plant tissues or causing stress reactions, delivering melatonin directly to the cells. Melatonin acts as a powerful natural antioxidant, activating plant defense mechanisms and significantly slowing down aging processes.

Impressive results were demonstrated with bok choy – a perishable leafy vegetable. Plants treated with innovative microneedles remained fresh for four days longer at room temperature and for a whole ten days longer in the refrigerator compared to untreated samples. Treated plants demonstrated stable indicators of weight, green color saturation, and chlorophyll content throughout the experiment.

"We have demonstrated the safety and effectiveness of melatonin delivery using biodegradable silk microneedles," emphasized the research leader Professor Jonathan Kim. "In the future, such patches could be applied automatically during direct crop processing – for example, using agricultural drones or machine manipulators."

The scientific team is not stopping at what has been achieved and plans to study the effects of other phytohormones on various agricultural crops, as well as develop technologies for mass production of microneedles for wide commercial application. This innovation could become a decisive factor in combating global food losses and ensuring food security without additional burden on the planet's energy resources.