Wouldn't it be great to keep fresh products like fruits, vegetables, and other plants fresh longer, maintaining their appearance and nutritional value? Polish company Fresh Inset has developed a product that does just that. Vidre+ extends the shelf life of fresh produce by days to months, reducing food waste and benefiting businesses, consumers, and the environment.
What is the technology behind Fresh Inset’s solution, and how exactly does it work? Who is the team behind this ingenious product, so desperately needed in our times? Let's take a closer look at how Fresh Inset, a member of our Agri & Food Tech market group, is working to improve the food supply and packaging industries.
More than a trillion dollars' worth of food is wasted annually across the globe. A significant portion of this, about 50% of all fruits and vegetables produced, spoils before consumption – during storage, transportation, sale or home storage. This waste not only represents a deplorable loss but also leads to increased costs from markdowns and spoilage for businesses.
Fresh Inset's product, Vidre+, offers a solution through its active packaging technology. It works by preserving the freshness of fruits, vegetables, and flowers throughout the entire supply chain. Vidre+ protects fresh produce and flowers from the post-harvest quality loss caused by ethylene, a natural hormone that speeds up ripening and spoilage. The technology integrates a slow-release 1-MCP compound into packaging solutions, which effectively neutralizes ethylene's impact and keeps products fresh longer.
For example, this technology extends the spinach’s freshness up to 10 days, and reduces raspberries' shrinkage. For avocados, Vidre+ delays the ripening process and softening, ensuring that 100% of the fruit remain green even after 46 days. For flowers like carnations, Vidre+ reduces premature flower drop and bud blast, extending their lifespan.
Fresh Inset's technology helps growers prepare their produce for longer transport routes without needing new infrastructure. The Vidre+ Complex upgrades standard packaging into a high-margin, functional solution that reduces waste. This decrease in spoilage benefits businesses through increased profits, consumers through better-quality produce, and the environment by reducing food waste.
“Incorporating Vidre+ can be easily implemented into storage and logistics. The technology incorporates freshness-enhancing properties directly into packaging materials and works with the majority of traditional formats, e.g., cardboard box or clamshell,” – stated Fresh Inset CSO, Krzysztof Czaplicki.
Vidre+ works by blocking ethylene receptors – this patented technology uses a simple sticker to protect produce throughout the supply chain without needing expensive infrastructure like cold or airtight rooms.
The product works simply by placing the sticker inside or affixing it to the produce packaging. The sticker activates and begins to release the active agent when the humidity inside the package exceeds 85%, which typically happens within a few hours. The active agent is then released gradually over the next 24 hours, providing a steady, precise dose of protection. After 48 hours, the active agent leaves no residue, ensuring the produce remains safe.
Vidre+ offers several advantages, including its ease of use and versatility. It can be applied at any stage of the supply chain, whether immediately after harvest, during transport, or in storage before sale. The technology is also effective on most types of fruits and vegetables, and its cost is a small fraction of the product's delivery price. Because of its design, using Vidre+ does not require any changes to existing production, logistics, or sales processes.
Vidre+ has been introduced to the U.S. market and is already registered for use in Peru. Through a key partnership with Janssen PMP, the technology has also become commercially available in Europe.
In addition to these commercial successes, Fresh Inset achieved another major milestone in June 2025 when it was selected as a finalist in the Packaging Europe Sustainability Awards. This award is widely recognized as the "Nobel Prize" of sustainable packaging innovations, highlighting the company's impact and potential. A year earlier, the company was listed in the prestigious FoodTech 500 by Forward Fooding.
Fresh Inset's leadership team brings together a mix of scientific expertise and business acumen. Co-founder Andrzej Wolan, a PhD in organic chemistry, serves as CEO and is responsible for overseeing R&D, scientific strategy, and management. The second co-founder Krzysztof Czaplicki, the company's CSO, is an experienced manager with expertise in business modeling and value building. Tim Malefyt, who holds a PhD, is the Global Director for R&D in international markets and has experience leading agrichemical projects for major companies like BASF.
Fresh Inset joined the EIC Scaling Club in October 2024, as one of only 12 food and agriculture technology companies selected for the second cohort. This recognition highlights the company's significant role in developing sustainable solutions for agriculture and food systems.
“Being part of the EIC Scaling Club is an important milestone for our company. This opportunity enables us to strengthen our position in the European deep-tech ecosystem and scale our solutions to meet global challenges. We are grateful to the organizers and partners for their support” – said Krzysztof Czaplicki.
The EIC Scaling Club is a curated community where 120+ European deep tech scale-ups with the potential to build world-class businesses and solve major global challenges come together with investors, corporate innovators and other industry stakeholders to spur growth.
The top 120+ European deep tech companies will be carefully selected from a pool of high-growth scale-ups that have benefitted from EIC financial schemes, other European and national innovation programmes, and beyond.
The EIC Scaling Club is an EIC-funded initiative run in partnership by Tech Tour, Bpifrance (EuroQuity), Hello Tomorrow, Tech.eu (Webrazzi), EurA and IESE Business School.
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