Prospector

Refrigerator to make your garden grow

This is an article about a refrigerator that keeps lighting and humidity in your vegetable drawer so that the vegetables keep growing in there instead of dying.

This is a good idea for refrigerators. I always have trouble eating all the lettuce before it goes soggy.

It is an even better idea for shipping containers. I always hear about the wierd chemicals they use on produce to keep it fresh during its cruise from Honduras or Brazil. Could we come up with a shipping container that keeps the veggies fresh or makes them better?
For that matter, can we just grow vegetables in shipping containers?


Greens get greener in Japan's health-conscious fridge - Yahoo! News

TOKYO (AFP) - The cabbage once destined to turn yellow sitting in the refrigerator can now get even greener instead.
A fridge that enhances Vitamin C and chlorophyll in the food it stores is the latest Japanese invention in a range of "vitamin home electronics" spawned to meet the demands of health-conscious consumers.
What gave birth to the fridge, first launched last September by Mitsubishi Electric, was not so much a technological breakthrough but a change in the way of thinking.

The key is a tiny box which creates orange light-emitting diodes (LEDs) that promote photosynthesis in the greens, which are kept in a partitioned, humid space in the fridge. The company chose a wavelength of 590 nanometers, which looks orange to human eyes.

Mizuno said the choice of wavelength was important as while longer waves which look red are most effective in promoting photosynthesis they also lead to budding and flowering.

The orange light creates chlorophyll in vegetables such as cabbage, making them look greener after several days in the fridge.

And the difference is not only cosmetic. Mitsubishi Electric found that after three days vitamin C rose by 10 percent in broccoli sprouts, compared with a 25 percent drop in conventional fridges.

The vitamin was 14-16 percent higher in cabbages after three days, according to the company's research.


Greens get greener in Japan's health-conscious fridge - Yahoo! News

posted by Prospector @ 9:32 PM