Avocado ripeness is infamously difficult to get right and over the years it has been the source of a lot of consumer frustration. If you are an avocado fan, you will no doubt recognise the challenge of standing in the supermarket, lifting up fruit after fruit to find that one avocado that is not too ripe, but not completely unripe either, only to come home and find that half of it has in fact gone bad. Now, a Swedish company is offering a solution to the problem.

Helsingborg-based packaging company Swedlog offers a technique for ripening avocados and other fruit, ensuring that you always get a perfectly ripe product.

Using Softripe ripening rooms from German company Frigotec GmbH Kaelte- und Verfahrenstechnik, Swedlog’s ripening process involves gas-tight rooms where the atmosphere is controlled to ensure ideal conditions in terms of temperature, CO2, oxygen, and C2H4 (ethylene, which occurs naturally in all fruits). The conditions of each room can be customised to represent various types of weather and soil quality, to suit the origins of the fruit. The ripening then happens from the core of the fruit, which is the complete opposite from traditional ripening techniques.

Promising “avocados with consistent quality and double lifespan”, Swedlog’s ripening rooms will not only improve quality and reduce consumer frustration, but also contribute to reduced food waste. According to the company, 34% of all avocados bought are thrown away. At the same time, 38% of consumers avoid buying avocados because they are rarely satisfied and 96% would buy them more often if the quality and lifespan were better. In retail and foodservice 5-15% of avocados are thrown away. 

Swedlog just struck a deal for its "perfectly ripe avocados" with ICA, Sweden’s biggest supermarket chain, and are doubling capacity this summer.