Wakati One…World’s Low Cost Food Preservation Technology

Fruits and vegetables growing on the field are constantly exposed to high temperatures. When fruits and vegetables are cut off from the plant, they start to dehydrate, the internal cell structure starts to decay and the cells, containing acids and enzymes, spill their contents, digesting the crops inside out and causing them to rot.

According to the United Nations, 45% of fruits and vegetables is spoiled before it reaches the market. This means that almost half of the labour and investments are wasted as well! In other words, it is impossible to be productive without a decent storage to protect the crops.

A company called Wakati—"time" in Swahili—started by Belgian designer/entrepreneur Arne Pauwels has come up with a solution to address post-harvest losses in situations when food might not reach mouths before it spoils and access to electricity or water is limited. Wakati provides the world’s first standalone solution for the preservation of fruits and vegetables for smallholder farmers in developing countries without using cooling.

With only one litre of water a week, Wakati enables farmers to store up to 200kg of fruits and vegetables powered by a small solar panel of just 3 Watt. Wakati allows smallholder farmers in remote areas to preserve their produce and boost their income.

The Wakati is focused on post-harvest storage at the farm-level, as the biggest impact can be made in the beginning of the supply chain. If the crops leave the farm in premium condition, food losses during transportation and at the marketplace will be significantly less.

Wakati also increases the sales position for the smallholder farmers in three ways: better quality, more crops, more time to sell and a steady supply.

How it works

The Wakati keeps the cell structure of recently harvest fruits and vegetables intact by preventing dehydration through the creation of a saturated humidity inside the tent.  This is a tent with some 3D printed parts and a solar panel. It can store up to 200 kg of produce, and it only uses a fraction of the energy a fridge would use. In addition, it’s way cheaper than a refrigerator. It uses a relative humidity of 99 percent, which makes produce stay fresh for twice as long.

With the Wakati, ethylene production is eliminated which is the ripening hormone of fruits and vegetables. At high temperatures, harvested crops produce high levels of ethylene, especially when they are bruised, which accelerates the rotting process of the produce.

The humid environment created by the Wakati helps to reduce the extent to which crops dry out after being harvested. As a result the cells of the crops are kept intact and the acids and enzymes inside the cells that would otherwise begin to digest the crops are kept contained.

Unlike a refrigerator, the Wakati does not control temperature and, therefore, cannot store fruit and veg for long-term periods.