In this episode of "Let's Talk Farm to Fork," we're joined by Jonathan Roberts from Fridge Friend, who we'll talk to about how their domestic ethylene-absorbing product is helping increase the shelf life of fresh produce and reducing household waste.

Transcript

[00:00:00] Mitchell Denton: Hi there, and welcome to Let's Talk Farm to Fork. The PostHarvest podcast that interviews people of interest across the food supply chain.

Today on our show, I'm joined by Jonathan Roberts from Fridge Friend, who I'll be talking to about how their ethylene-absorbing device can help domestic fridges and households cut down on food waste. So with no further delays, let's get started.

Well, good morning Jonathan. Thanks for joining me. How are you?

[00:00:28] Jonathan Roberts: Uh, very well, very well. Thank you for inviting me onto the show.

[00:00:32] Mitchell Denton: Oh, no worries, no worries. Before we get into it though, would you mind telling us a bit about yourself, what you do and how you came to work in the food tech industry?

[00:00:42] Jonathan Roberts: Ah good question Mitch, ah, I'll try and give you the shorter version, because I could ramble on for ages. Um, previous life, 27 years in an advertising agency that I started in Geelong, back in 95. Uh, fast forward to about 10 years ago, um, my brother was running a business in Melbourne. Where he was installing humidity and bacteria control filters into cool rooms, in restaurants and pubs.
And I loved the model of the business because it was a recurring revenue business. Whereas my, my advertising agency had some recurring revenue, but not a lot. And I just liked the idea of having a side gig. So I kind of partnered with my brother and set up a similar business to his in Geelong.
Where I was installing the same filters, the humidity and bacteria control filters, into about 30 or 40 restaurants and pubs around Geelong and it just ticked away in the background for a bunch of years. And during COVID. Um, yeah, we, I think lots of people had a lot of time to think and I was thinking, how do I take the technology of those filters and put them into fridges?
Because at the time the cost of living was going through the roof, fresh produce prices were going through the roof and I started hearing a lot more about the global food waste problem. So I spent a bit of time in COVID, working on how we'd get this thing off the ground. And then in January of 2023 we launched, Fridge Friend and, um, kind of the rest is history.
[00:02:17] Mitchell Denton: Well, I mean, you've given us a little bit of a background, but would you mind explaining what the Zero Waste Project is, and the consisting domestic and commercial arms of that?
[00:02:29] Jonathan Roberts: Well, Zero Waste Project is the overarching, I guess, philosophy or concept behind what we're trying to do. And the two separate divisions of that business, uh, one is Fridge Friend, which is the online business that provides fridge filters to anybody that wants to buy one online. So we have a Shopify store and people can buy a Fridge Friend, put it in their fridge and it absorbs ethylene gas and extends a lot of fresh produce.
And the commercial side is called EcoFresh Filters, which is the business I've been running for 10 years and putting commercial filters into cool rooms. And, I've also, at some time, when I've got some time, hoping to develop a consulting business that provides sustainability and food waste reduction strategies to the hospitality sector.
I see that as a nice mission of what we're trying to do. I mean, the overall concept is, you know, try to reduce food waste.
[00:03:24] Mitchell Denton: Okay. So then, for the general public who are listening, would you mind explaining ethylene on a domestic level, and how Fridge Friend works as a solution?
[00:03:35] Jonathan Roberts: Yeah, good question. Most fresh produce, uh, will either absorb or release ethylene. Ethylene's a natural hormone that manages the, uh, ripening of fresh produce. So for instance, things like bananas they release a lot of ethylene into their surrounding environment, whereas apples and asparagus don't, but they're very sensitive to ethylene.
So what we're trying to do is uh, reduce the amount of ethylene in a fridge, and by reducing the ethylene, we're extending the life of the fresh produce, of most of the fresh produce in the fridge. And that type of technology has been around for a long time. There's a lot of work in the manufacturing and harvesting space around how do we ship huge amounts of fresh produce into other markets by extending the life. They call it, um, ethylene scrubbing, and the concept's been around for years but, Fridge Friend, we've tried to make it more attainable for domestic purposes, because most of the food waste that happens comes out of the fridge.
So if we can extend the life of fresh produce, by default we're, we're reducing the amount of food waste and that's what we're starting to see since we launched.
[00:04:42] Mitchell Denton: That's fantastic. So you're saying that the concept and forms of the technology have been around for a while. What would you say separates your filter products from other freshness products on the market?
[00:04:54] Jonathan Roberts: Yeah look, good question and we, we get that question a lot. There, there are other products out there that use, uh, activated carbon or, um, people say, "well, why don't we just use bicarb soda?" Uh, some of those products will absorb some things like bicarbs great at absorbing odours and activated charcoals great at absorbing a certain percentage of ethylene.
But our product has been scientifically proven to absorb up to 79 percent of ethylene, but it also absorbs, because it's got a very porous surface, it also absorbs bacteria, odours, uh, mould particles that are floating around in your fridge, and it also will buffer humidity at around 80%.
So, if the humidity in your fridge rises above 80% which will allow mould to grow. So if the moisture rises above, humidity rises above 80%, the filter will absorb some of that moisture and if it decreases and goes below 80%, it'll actually desorb some of the moisture.
So it's buffering humidity at around 80%, which is the ideal humidity for most fresh produce, not all fresh produce, but most. The other main benefit is that you don't have to buy replacements for Fridge Friend. The way we operate is that you put it in the fridge for a month, uh, once a month you take it out of the fridge, zap it in the microwave for about 20 seconds, and that heats up the mineral, allows the ethylene to escape, kills the bacteria, releases the moisture.
We'll let the Fridge Friend cool down, you put it back in the fridge. I've got filters that I've been using in cool rooms that are up to 10 years old. So we know the mineral will continue to work. So the benefit is no refills, long life, it's much more sustainable than most of the other products out there on the market.
And it also does all of those things, ethylene, bacteria, mould, odours, and, uh, humidity.
[00:06:46] Mitchell Denton: Yeah, fantastic. So then, what kind of storage life increase can a customer expect to see?
[00:06:53] Jonathan Roberts: The feedback we're getting, and we've got some testing that is telling us that you can see, typically, uh, well, we've got a number that, that came out of the University of South Carolina that said up to 169%. Now that's in optimal laboratory conditions, but we, we're getting feedback that people are saying their strawberries are lasting for a week longer.
Um, we've got people that have said, uh, their lettuces will last for two weeks. So we're, we're suggesting that you'll get at worst days longer, and at best, weeks longer for different types of fresh produce. The challenge is that every piece of fresh produce is different. One, we don't know how old the produce is when we buy it from the supermarket, because it could already be on its way out.
Everybody's fridge is different, I mean, if you've got a family of five people and the fridge is being open multiple times, all of a sudden the dynamics of what happens in a fridge varies, but we, when you generally say you'll get days and up to weeks longer for certain types of fresh produce.
[00:07:56] Mitchell Denton: I mean, even days can make or break the amount of waste coming out of a household. I know I'm, I'm definitely guilty of having a few punnets of blueberries and things like that that I, I kinda just missed the boat, so to speak. So, being able to extend it out by 24 hours, 48 hours, like even that's like a, a huge win as far as I'm concerned.
[00:08:17] Jonathan Roberts: Yeah, the pleasing thing is the, the amount of trust pilot reviews will get saying. "Uh, and I was skeptical at first, but I've had it in for a month and, you know, my strawberries are lasting, seven days longer". And, and, you know, we go, well, that's, that's the whole purpose of this thing is if, if the fresh produce is lasting longer, there's a higher chance of it being eaten.
And therefore there's a much higher chance of less produce going into landfill. And that's, that's the end goal of this is to reduce landfill, reduce the cost of living for families, and you know, to date we're getting fantastic feedback.
[00:08:54] Mitchell Denton: Absolutely. So then, does Fridge Friend require any specific setup or installation process? How user friendly is it for customers?
[00:09:02] Jonathan Roberts: Yeah, look, we've tried to make it really, really simple. Um, so when we, we ship the Fridge Friend, from our warehouse in Geelong, it'll arrive in a recyclable cardboard box. You take the Fridge Friend out of the box, there's a leaflet in there with some instructions. Uh, because we've sent it to you, and we don't seal the Fridge Friend in plastic because we don't want to use plastic.
It may have picked up some humidity or some, some other odours in transport, so we'll get you to reset the filter when you first get it. You pop it in the microwave for 15 seconds. Uh, let it cool down and then pop it in the fridge, uh, so that's, that's really the setup and the maintenance of the Fridge Friend is to take it out once a month and zap it in the microwave for a little bit longer than 15 seconds because when you first get it, it's at a room temperature and when you take it out of the fridge it's four degrees so it needs a little bit longer to do its thing and we send, we send everybody a reminder email to reset the Fridge Friend.
And that's, that's pretty much it. And we, we offer a 12 month replacement warranty. Um, but we're confident that most people should see, we're thinking three years would be a pretty good time frame where you'll be able to use the fridge for at least three years.
[00:10:14] Mitchell Denton: Yeah, perfect. So then, what's the biggest challenge your team have faced while developing your innovative product?
[00:10:21] Jonathan Roberts: Surprisingly, it was, uh, demand, supply and demand. We, um, to be honest, I wasn't sure how well the Fridge Friend would work in a fridge given that the experience has been in cool rooms and they're quite different. So when we launched the product and we started shipping, it took us about nine months to ship and sell the first 5,000, And then the next 5, 000 sold in three months, and we're now selling about 5, 000 a month. So we've gone from not really, um, I've never, never manufactured a product. I've never imported a product or components of a product overseas. So we nailed what a lot of startups don't nail, and that's, or they don't nail early on, we seemed to nail the product market fit really well, and the demand was, was fantastic.
So the biggest challenge for us was, once we got some traction was, how do we meet that demand by getting more supply? Um, and we're, we're now looking at ordering in lots of 50, 000 units. I'm placing an order probably later this month for 50, 000 components for 50, 000 units. Uh, so that's, I mean, it's the best challenge you can have in the startup is, is is just having too much demand for your product.
Uh, and then scaling, scaling the people behind it, you know, it was really just my son and I, Nick was a co founder of the business. He works full time in Sydney, so he's doing the marketing for this business part time. And in November, when sales started to take off, I employed one of my other kids, Theo, who's now managing customer happiness. That's now a full time role, managing customer questions and chasing up deliveries and answering questions about how to use the Fridge Friend. And I've now also added my other son, because now I've got all my kids working in the business who's helping us with potential global expansion of the business.
So it's been resourcing and, uh, meeting demand and they've been things that I've never had to do before because I've run a service business, not a product business.
[00:12:20] Mitchell Denton: No, those are exciting challenges, but I have to assume just with the general timeline of Fridge Friend, post-COVID with supply chains and everything, it would have been a bit of an uphill battle trying to kind of get the ball rolling on orders and all that.
[00:12:35] Jonathan Roberts: Yeah, look, just, I mean, uh, one, I designed the product on the back of an envelope so I'm not a product developer. And then to find someone in China that could take my design and And make a mould and then do the plastic, plastic injecting. It was a really steep learning curve, but I think, I think we were just so determined to do this.
And I did try this five years ago and gave up and COVID said, the stars have aligned. If I don't do this now, I really will regret it. The problem's too big to not push through. And yeah, there's still, still challenges. And we're looking at redesigning the product and global expansion, all those sorts of things.
Um, but it's, it's been, um, the thing that excites me now is all the, the five star cross pilot reviews we get. Um, you know, when you, when you're feeling a bit exhausted, and you're sitting up at 11 o'clock at night trying to work something out and you go, ping! there's another five star review, you go, "Okay, that's why we're doing this." And you keep pushing on.
[00:13:32] Mitchell Denton: Yeah, fantastic. So then, having your product working closely within the hospitality and domestic levels of food waste, outside of your solution, what would you identify as one of the biggest problems, with food waste in these areas?
[00:13:46] Jonathan Roberts: I think commercially, uh, it's interesting when you go and talk to a cafe or a restaurant, and you talk to the chef, and most chefs will say they don't have a food waste problem, but if you talk to the owner, who's paying for more and more expensive food, produce, they might have a different take on, uh, food waste.
The hospitality sector has got really good at, at, at ordering less produce more often. And the supply chain has also got, has really worked on really hard so that the fresh produce is turning over quicker. Um, but hospitality sector has been slammed from every corner.
And when I go and talk to owners or chefs of businesses, they are looking at ways to reduce their costs and reduce the food waste that they've got. Because if they're buying a small punnet of of herbs, they're hugely expensive. So if they can get a little bit of extra life out of some of their produce, it all adds up. So, that's been really beneficial.
And I think that's the biggest challenge is the education piece around, there are solutions and, um, you know, how do we in the commercial space, how do we help these businesses survive? And I'm confident that when venues put in a EcoFresh filter into their cool rooms, they will over time see reduced power costs because the compressors are running more efficiently due to the buffering of the humidity, and they will be getting less food waste.
So, that's one of the key issues that the hospitality sector's facing, just trying to drive costs down and, and survive, let alone be profitable.
[00:15:26] Mitchell Denton: So then, whether it's in the same or an unrelated field, are there any groups or innovations within the food waste space that you're excitedly keeping a watchful eye on?
[00:15:36] Jonathan Roberts: Yeah. Look, it's funny for the first six months of the journey, I spent a lot of time talking to organisations and government departments around food waste and what's happening and most of the direction was at the big end of town, helping supply chains extend the life of fresh produce, help producers reduce food waste.
And that's, that's great, but there's now a lot of organisations that are looking at the other end, which is where we're at, the consumer end.
Which is where I see a lot of food waste produced is out of homes. I think 35 percent of food waste that goes to landfill is from home. We're seeing people come up with desktop food composting machines.
Uh, there was a, a food waste app launched recently that had significant funding from the federal government that's helping people manage their fresh produce and reduce food waste. Finally there's more education, there's more solutions. It's a huge problem, but there's lots of ways to tackle it and, and Fridge Friend is just one of those ways.
You know, there's, there's education, there's, OzHarvest has launched a product uh, I forgot the name of it, but it's a tape that you put on your produce that shows you're going to use it. So there's, there's all sorts of ways, that organisations and entrepreneurs are looking at getting into the space.
And the good thing of following that is there was a lot of investment happening there. The sustainability sectors probably the only sector that's getting more investment, uh, as opposed to a lot of other sectors are getting less investment. I've be to a number of conferences where investors are really keen to get into the space because there's a lot of action happening and there's a lot of really good outcomes coming, which is exciting.
[00:17:15] Mitchell Denton: Following on from that, what advice would you give any entrepreneurs who are looking to develop a product within the food tech space?
[00:17:23] Jonathan Roberts: The biggest challenge I've seen with other startups is not having product market fit. And I think we were, in some ways lucky that we nailed it without too much trouble. And I think a lot of entrepreneurs come up with an idea and they're so passionate about it, which is fantastic, but there may not be a problem that it's going to solve, whereas we knew that there was a food waste problem.
We knew that the product fixed it, it was just about educating the market about, this is now available, you should try it, it's risk free, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So I think where entrepreneurs and startups need to focus more and earlier is, is the solution you've got solving a problem and is that problem really a burning problem?
A burning problem that our solution solves is, is food waste and cost of living. I mean, they're, they're on the news every day. So it wasn't hard to sort of ride that wave, so I think it's finding a problem that you want to solve and then making sure that there's a big enough market for that solution.
[00:18:28] Mitchell Denton: Definitely. So, Jonathan, we are coming to a close, but before we do, I just wanted to ask you, what's the main point you want the listeners to take away from this episode?
[00:18:38] Jonathan Roberts: Don't accept that, the next time you open your crisper drawer, that you have to expect a science project to be growing in there. There are solutions to reducing food waste and next, you know, the next time that you throw out a piece of produce that you forgot about or it went off quicker than it could.
There are a bunch of solutions, obviously, including Fridge Friend that with a little bit of forethought, help you reduce food waste and that's reducing the cost of living which everyone's looking for, and it's also helping the planet, because its reducing food waste going to landfills. So just think about looking for solutions around food waste, cause there's plenty of them out there.
[00:19:13] Mitchell Denton: Well, that's all for today's episode of Let's Talk Farm to Fork. Thanks for listening, and thank you, Jonathan, for joining us.
[00:19:21] Jonathan Roberts: Thanks Mitch, for the invitation and its been an enjoyable chat.
[00:19:24] Mitchell Denton: If you'd like to know more about Jonathan and Fridge Friend, check out the link in the description of our episode, make sure to subscribe to the podcast so that you never miss an episode, and don't forget to leave a review and share with your friends.
Until next time, you've been listening to Let's Talk Farm to Fork, a PostHarvest podcast.