Reducing Fresh Food Loss with An Edible Coating Technology Derived from Seaweed: Application, Technoeconomic, And Environmental Analyses

Reducing Fresh Food Loss with An Edible Coating Technology Derived from Seaweed: Application, Technoeconomic, And Environmental Analyses | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Reducing Fresh Food Loss with An Edible Coating Technology Derived from Seaweed: Application, Technoeconomic, And Environmental Analyses Mingyu Qiao, Anuj Purohit, Yidan Zhang, Usama Sheikh, Srivatsa Bettahalli, and 6 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-9065236/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted 9 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract An edible coating biopolymer-composite was created with a seaweed extract derived from farmed sugar kelp using a green biorefinery approach. Its potential to reduce food loss was holistically evaluated via food and material testing, technoeconomic analysis (TEA), and life cycle assessment (LCA). An electrospray coating method dramatically improved material pickup and drying metrics. This coating applied by electrospraying significantly reduced desiccation ( p < 0.01) and fungal incidence ( p < 0.01) in strawberries over 18 days in real-time shelf-life testing. Moreover, TEA revealed that coating could be cost viably manufactured in a 1 ton/h feed rate biorefinery with a minimum selling price of $ 0.25/kg. LCA estimated 21% reduction in greenhouse gas potential from environmentally sustainable manufacturing of the coating and food loss reduction resulting from coating strawberries, in the farm to end-of-life scenario. Together the findings offer the technical, economic, and environmental bases to evaluate commercialization of a novel seaweed derived food technology in reducing food loss in fresh produce Physical sciences/Materials science/Biomaterials Physical sciences/Engineering/Chemical engineering Business and commerce/Economics Earth and environmental sciences/Climate sciences/Climate change/Climate-change impacts/Environmental health Full Text Additional Declarations Yes there is potential Competing Interest. Anuj Purohit and Mingyu Qiao are co-founders of Atlantic Sea Solutions, Inc., a company focusing on commercialization of seaweed for food coating. Yidan Zhang and Mingyu Qiao are co-founders of SeaSol Technologies, Inc., a company focusing on commercializing seaweed for paper coating. Supplementary Files CommSustSupplementalInformationSeaweedExtractTech.docx Reducing Fresh Food Loss with An Edible Coating Technology Derived from Seaweed: Application, Technoeconomic, And Environmental Analyses Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted Reviewer # 3 agreed at journal 05 May, 2026 Review # 1 received at journal 16 Apr, 2026 Review # 2 received at journal 31 Mar, 2026 Reviewer # 2 agreed at journal 31 Mar, 2026 Reviewer # 1 agreed at journal 30 Mar, 2026 Reviewers invited by journal 20 Mar, 2026 Editor assigned by journal 09 Mar, 2026 Submission checks completed at journal 08 Mar, 2026 First submitted to journal 08 Mar, 2026 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-9065236","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":609355763,"identity":"beedf82c-77b1-4352-9a25-e5ec9f175b7e","order_by":0,"name":"Mingyu 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