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

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 being a postdoctoral chemistry researcher to co-founding Apeel Sciences
• The science behind Apeel's clean, edible produce coating and how it differs from traditional products applied to produce post-harvest
• Apeel's evaluation and approvals by FDA, EFSA, and regulators in more than 40 countries
• How Apeel disrupts the existing $11 billion dollar post-harvest industry and what happens to produce between the field and retail
• The implications of Apeel on food safety standards and protocols for post-harvest treatment and microbial control
• Apeel's response to industry resistance and disinformation
• The broader consumer movement demanding transparency about food production and ingredients, and where Apeel fits into this conversation.

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