This Fridge Is Magic
This fridge maker’s new light system, called NutriLight, is designed to add energy and nutrient content back into produce as it’s stored in the fridge.
Think of it like the opposite of freezer burn. This fridge maker’s new light system, called NutriLight, is designed to add energy and nutrient content back into produce as it’s stored in the fridge. Urban WÁ¤hlby, researcher in the global advanced development department of Electrolux Food Preservation, says the light treatment does not “give eternal life to the produce, but it does give an additional boost.”
The NutriLight works best on leafy greens, because in the realm of vegetables, they have the greatest surface area to depth ratio.
How does it work? The NutriLight is an energy-efficient light source that doesn’t emit harmful UV and ultrared light rays, therefore only emitting the rays beneficial to post-harvest produce. Essentially, synthetic photosynthesis is occurring in your crisper drawer. The NutriLight works best on leafy greens, because in the realm of vegetables, they have the greatest surface area to depth ratio. Also, WÁ¤hlby hopes that the NutriLight, which has the added benefit of illuminating the crisper drawer, will have the secondary result of drawing customers towards making healthier eating choices overall.
The NutriFresh refrigerator, which contains the NutrilLight, is currently only available to Asian markets. According to Electrolux, this is in part due to consumer behavior: In Asia, more consumers shop for food daily rather than weekly — and more often than not, are buying straight from the farmer. Though the produce itself may be fresher what is typically found in Western grocery stores, it has also been exposed to more elements (like sunlight and warm temperatures), leading to a more rapid decay.
But the NutriFresh isn’t the only thing that’s growing in fridge technology – Hanna SandstrÁ¶m, an industrial designer from Stockholm, in partnership with Whirlpool and Green Fortune, has designed a fridge that uses hydroponic technology to grow herbs and salad greens right in your refrigerator door. Controlled by the display located on the top of the fridge, the light, temperature, water, and nutrition is provided automatically. Inspired by the locavore movement, SandstrÁ¶m wanted to provide people an aesthetically pleasing way to grow food without the hassle.
Photo courtesy of electrolux.com.ph
Subscribe
2 Comments
Most Voted
Newest
Oldest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Follow us
Republish!
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
Republish this article
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Want to republish a Modern Farmer story?
We are happy for Modern Farmer stories to be shared, and encourage you to republish our articles for your audience. When doing so, we ask that you follow these guidelines:
Please credit us and our writers
For the author byline, please use “Author Name, Modern Farmer.” At the top of our stories, if on the web, please include this text and link: “This story was originally published by Modern Farmer.”
Please make sure to include a link back to either our home page or the article URL.
At the bottom of the story, please include the following text:
“Modern Farmer is a nonprofit initiative dedicated to raising awareness and catalyzing action at the intersection of food, agriculture, and society. Read more at <link>Modern Farmer</link>.”
Use our widget
We’d like to be able to track our stories, so we ask that if you republish our content, you do so using our widget (located on the left hand side of the article). The HTML code has a built-in tracker that tells us the data and domain where the story was published, as well as view counts.
Check the image requirements
It’s your responsibility to confirm you're licensed to republish images in our articles. Some images, such as those from commercial providers, don't allow their images to be republished without permission or payment. Copyright terms are generally listed in the image caption and attribution. You are welcome to omit our images or substitute with your own. Charts and interactive graphics follow the same rules.
Don’t change too much. Or, ask us first.
Articles must be republished in their entirety. It’s okay to change references to time (“today” to “yesterday”) or location (“Iowa City, IA” to “here”). But please keep everything else the same.
If you feel strongly that a more material edit needs to be made, get in touch with us at [email protected]. We’re happy to discuss it with the original author, but we must have prior approval for changes before publication.
Special cases
-
Extracts. You may run the first few lines or paragraphs of the article and then say: “Read the full article at Modern Farmer” with a link back to the original article.
-
Quotes. You may quote authors provided you include a link back to the article URL.
-
Translations. These require writer approval. To inquire about translation of a Modern Farmer article, contact us at [email protected]
-
Signed consent / copyright release forms. These are not required, provided you are following these guidelines.
-
Print. Articles can be republished in print under these same rules, with the exception that you do not need to include the links.
Tag us
When sharing the story on social media, please tag us using the following: - Twitter (@ModFarm) - Facebook (@ModernFarmerMedia) - Instagram (@modfarm)
Use our content respectfully
Modern Farmer is a nonprofit and as such we share our content for free and in good faith in order to reach new audiences. Respectfully,
-
No selling ads against our stories. It’s okay to put our stories on pages with ads.
-
Don’t republish our material wholesale, or automatically; you need to select stories to be republished individually.
-
You have no rights to sell, license, syndicate, or otherwise represent yourself as the authorized owner of our material to any third parties. This means that you cannot actively publish or submit our work for syndication to third party platforms or apps like Apple News or Google News. We understand that publishers cannot fully control when certain third parties automatically summarize or crawl content from publishers’ own sites.
Keep in touch
We want to hear from you if you love Modern Farmer content, have a collaboration idea, or anything else to share. As a nonprofit outlet, we work in service of our community and are always open to comments, feedback, and ideas. Contact us at [email protected].This Fridge Is Magic
by Kate Farrar, Modern Farmer
April 2, 2014
Modern Farmer Weekly
Solutions Hub
Innovations, ideas and inspiration. Actionable solutions for a resilient food system.
ExploreExplore other topics
Share With Us
We want to hear from Modern Farmer readers who have thoughtful commentary, actionable solutions, or helpful ideas to share.
Submit