AgroFresh's SmartFresh gas blocks apples' ripening signal, keeping fruit firm for months

Apples ripen and soften because the plant hormone ethylene triggers their receptors, and for decades the only lever was temperature: colder rooms slowed ripening but could not stop it, and varieties like Bramley still went soft or broke down in storage.

AgroFresh, a Rohm and Haas company, commercialized the SmartFresh System: 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) is released as a gas inside a sealed storage room, where it binds to the fruit's ethylene receptors before ethylene can. For a period after treatment, apples are insensitive to the ripening signal, so firmness and quality are retained through storage and distribution.

The system scaled to commercial reality — rooms as large as 3,500 m³, holding about 900,000 kg of apples. Extensive trials at East Malling Research from 2000 led to UK approval for apples in September 2003, and SmartFresh became a standard postharvest tool across apple-growing regions.

Block the ripening hormone, not just the cold

1-MCP blocks the receptor, pausing the ripening response

One 24-hour room treatment covers an entire commercial store

It works with cold and CA storage instead of replacing them

Firm fruit extends the selling season and cuts waste

If the enemy is a signal, attack the receiver, not just the environment: blocking ethylene's receptor did what colder rooms alone could not, and one treatment extended the selling season.

SmartFresh became a routine part of commercial apple storage, combined with controlled-atmosphere rooms, and the ethylene-blocking principle was extended to other fruit; regulation later required certified applicators for storage treatments.