Apeel Sciences: Helping Growers and Suppliers Build the Future of Food

About this episode

Jenny Du, Ph.D. discusses her journey and the innovations of Apeel Sciences in enhancing the freshness of produce.

Jenny Du, Ph.D. is Co-Founder of Apeel Sciences, a post-harvest intelligence and solutions company helping suppliers and retailers deliver fresh, healthier, and simply better produce at scale—using plant-based materials science to close the gap between what consumers expect from fresh produce and what the supply chain is able to deliver. Jenny earned her bachelor's degree in engineering chemistry and her Ph.D. in chemistry from Queen's University in Ontario, Canada, where she was awarded an Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship. She then joined the University of California, Santa Barbara as a postdoctoral researcher in chemistry, where she met co-founders James Rogers and Lou Perez. In 2013, the three founded Apeel in a garage in Goleta, California. Today, Apeel has earned regulatory clearances and operates in several markets worldwide, including in the U.S. and in Europe. Jenny was named to Inc.'s 2021 Top Female Founders 100 list and named one of TED's Top 10 most-watched speakers of the year following her 2025 talk, "The Science of Making Fruits and Veggies Last Longer." In this episode of Food Safety Matters , we speak with Jenny [1:51] about: Her journey from…

People in this episode

Guest: Jenny Du, Ph.D.

Topics covered

• food safety
• post-harvest technology
• plant-based materials
• fresh produce
• supply chain
• food industry

Keywords

• Apeel Sciences
• food safety
• post-harvest
• fresh produce
• plant-based coating
• FDA approvals
• supply chain

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Apeel Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara, FDA, EFSA

Books & works: The Science of Making Fruits and Veggies Last Longer

Places: Canada, U.S., Europe

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