Packaged, pre-cut, ready-to-eat fruit could soon be the norm when you open your airline food tray if Queensland's Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries scientists have anything to do with it.
The new concept could also change the way parents package school lunches, with chocolate bars and cakes replaced by this much healthier alternative.
Scientists at the department's Hamilton laboratories are working with two Australian food industry businesses, Holmanfresh and Gaypak, as well as Horticulture Australia Ltd, to trial new natural preservation techniques to provide the education, hospitality and retail sectors with a healthy alternative to junk foods.
"This natural preservation method will assist specialist companies to cut and package fruit in centralised high hygiene facilities and distribute it to schools, hospitals and hotels," DPI&F food science leader Roger Stanley said.
"The use of natural plant extracts to help preserve flavour and maintain food safety is an exciting development that has the capacity to increase fruit consumption as well as boost the value of the State's fruit industry."
Dr Stanley said encouraging an increased consumption of fruit could also help provide answers to Australia’s obesity problems and lower the incidence of type 2 diabetes.
"Fruit provides a great source of natural antioxidant molecules that can activate cell signals to help protect our bodies from the damaging effects of these diseases," he said.
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