Fruits and vegetables account for around a third of all food loss and waste. Post-harvest, retail and consumer losses and waste could be reduced with better ripeness assessment methods. Here we develop a sub-terahertz metamaterial sticker (called Meta-Sticker) that can be attached to a fruit to provide insights into the edible mesocarp\u2019s ripeness without cutting into the produce. The fruit acts as a complex multilayer substrate to Meta-Sticker and, when excited by sub-terahertz signals, generates two distinct resonances: localized dipole resonance that correlates with the exocarp\u2019s refractive index; and propagating plasmon resonance that penetrates into the mesocarp and resembles the rare phenomenon of \u2018extraordinary transmission\u2019. The Meta-Sticker accurately predicted the ripeness of different fruits with a cumulative normalized root mean square error of 0.54% of the produce tested. This study offers a non-invasive, low-cost and biodegradable solution for accurate ripeness assessment with applications in distribution optimization and food waste reduction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fruits and vegetables account for around a third of all food loss and waste. Post-harvest, retail and consumer losses and waste could be reduced with better ripeness assessment methods. Here we develop a sub-terahertz metamaterial sticker (called Meta-Sticker) that can be attached to a fruit to provide insights into the edible mesocarp\u2019s ripeness without cutting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"msr-url-field":"","msr-podcast-episode":"","msrModifiedDate":"","msrModifiedDateEnabled":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_classifai_error":"","msr-author-ordering":null,"msr_publishername":"","msr_publisher_other":"","msr_booktitle":"","msr_chapter":"","msr_edition":"","msr_editors":"","msr_how_published":"","msr_isbn":"","msr_issue":"","msr_journal":"Nature Food","msr_number":"","msr_organization":"","msr_pages_string":"","msr_page_range_start":"97","msr_page_range_end":"104","msr_series":"","msr_volume":"6","msr_copyright":"","msr_conference_name":"","msr_doi":"","msr_arxiv_id":"","msr_s2_paper_id":"","msr_mag_id":"","msr_pubmed_id":"","msr_other_authors":"","msr_other_contributors":"","msr_speaker":"","msr_award":"","msr_affiliation":"","msr_institution":"","msr_host":"","msr_version":"","msr_duration":"","msr_original_fields_of_study":null,"msr_release_tracker_id":"","msr_s2_match_type":"","msr_citation_count_updated":"","msr_published_date":"2025-1","msr_highlight_text":"","msr_notes":"","msr_longbiography":"","msr_publicationurl":"","msr_external_url":"","msr_secondary_video_url":"","msr_conference_url":"","msr_journal_url":"","msr_s2_pdf_url":"","msr_year":0,"msr_citation_count":0,"msr_influential_citations":0,"msr_reference_count":0,"msr_s2_match_confidence":0,"msr_microsoftintellectualproperty":false,"msr_s2_open_access":false,"msr_s2_author_ids":[],"msr_pub_ids":[],"msr_hide_image_in_river":null,"footnotes":""},"msr-research-highlight":[],"research-area":[13547,13568],"msr-publication-type":[193715],"msr-publisher":[],"msr-focus-area":[],"msr-locale":[268875],"msr-post-option":[269148,269142],"msr-field-of-study":[246691,250303,259909],"msr-conference":[],"msr-journal":[],"msr-impact-theme":[],"msr-pillar":[],"class_list":["post-1129404","msr-research-item","type-msr-research-item","status-publish","hentry","msr-research-area-systems-and-networking","msr-research-area-technology-for-emerging-markets","msr-locale-en_us","msr-post-option-approved-for-river","msr-post-option-include-in-river","msr-field-of-study-computer-science","msr-field-of-study-electrical-engineering","msr-field-of-study-food-science"],"msr_publishername":"","msr_edition":"","msr_affiliation":"","msr_published_date":"2025-1","msr_host":"","msr_duration":"","msr_version":"","msr_speaker":"","msr_other_contributors":"","msr_booktitle":"","msr_pages_string":"","msr_chapter":"","msr_isbn":"","msr_journal":"Nature Food","msr_volume":"6","msr_number":"","msr_editors":"","msr_series":"","msr_issue":"","msr_organization":"","msr_how_published":"","msr_notes":"","msr_highlight_text":"","msr_release_tracker_id":"","msr_original_fields_of_study":"","msr_download_urls":"","msr_external_url":"","msr_secondary_video_url":"","msr_longbiography":"","msr_microsoftintellectualproperty":0,"msr_main_download":"","msr_publicationurl":"","msr_doi":"","msr_publication_uploader":[{"type":"doi","viewUrl":"false","id":"false","title":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s43016-024-01083-x","label_id":"243106","label":0},{"type":"url","viewUrl":"false","id":"false","title":"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s43016-024-01083-x","label_id":"243109","label":0}],"msr_related_uploader":"","msr_citation_count":0,"msr_citation_count_updated":"","msr_s2_paper_id":"","msr_influential_citations":0,"msr_reference_count":0,"msr_arxiv_id":"","msr_s2_author_ids":[],"msr_s2_open_access":false,"msr_s2_pdf_url":null,"msr_attachments":[],"msr-author-ordering":[{"type":"text","value":"Subhajit Karmakar","user_id":0,"rest_url":false},{"type":"text","value":"Atsutse Kludze","user_id":0,"rest_url":false},{"type":"user_nicename","value":"Ranveer Chandra","user_id":33344,"rest_url":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/wp-json\/microsoft-research\/v1\/researchers?person=Ranveer Chandra"},{"type":"text","value":"Yasaman Ghasempour","user_id":0,"rest_url":false}],"msr_impact_theme":[],"msr_research_lab":[],"msr_event":[],"msr_group":[],"msr_project":[924828,881235],"publication":[],"video":[],"msr-tool":[],"msr_publication_type":"article","related_content":{"projects":[{"ID":924828,"post_title":"Project FoodVibes","post_name":"foodvibes","post_type":"msr-project","post_date":"2023-03-03 17:33:00","post_modified":"2024-04-03 10:10:02","post_status":"publish","permalink":"https:\/\/cm-edgetun.pages.dev\/en-us\/research\/project\/foodvibes\/","post_excerpt":"Reducing food waste and optimizing production Through the FoodVibes, we are addressing the global food challenge by developing and deploying affordable technology that helps reduce waste and optimize production. 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