The startup that tried to fix food waste—and got hit by a disinformation campaign

Apeel was quickly growing until a wave of social media attacks spread by wellness influencers. Here’s how it survived.

[Source Image: artemkutsenko/Adobe Stock]

A few years ago, if you walked down the produce aisle in any major supermarket in the U.S., you might have seen a sticker on avocados or lemons that said “Apeel.” The label wasn’t from a grower, but from a company designed to fight food waste; by adding a food-safe, plant-based coating to the fruit, it’s possible to make it last days longer, so it’s less likely to end up in the trash.

Apeel Sciences was quickly growing, and had already become one of the first food waste companies to reach unicorn status. (It made Fast Company‘s Most Innovative Companies list in........

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