Scientists from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) have developed a new technique for coating fruit with a spray that could prolong its shelf life by several weeks. The process takes just five seconds to apply and can keep certain fruit fresh for four weeks or more.

The new nano-coating spraying technique uses plant derived polyphenols, a non-toxic food additive that also has antibacterial properties. Test results found that after 28 days of storing mandarin oranges at 25C, 27 per cent of the uncoated fruit were rotten while all of the coated mandarins remained edible.

In a test with strawberries, after 58 hours, over half of the treated fruit remained in good condition, while only 6 per cent of of the untreated strawberries had not become rotten.