The Future is Fresher

Our all-natural coating triples the shelf-life of produce.

All it takes is the right barrier. Our coating is created from a strong and flexible network of proteins that work hard to keep your food fresh.

The Power of Upcycling Food Waste

Every year, 40% of the US food supply is wasted—that’s 80 billion pounds of food—with serious consequences.

NanoFresh is working to reduce this waste from both ends - repurposing food waste into a coating that keeps food fresher for longer - without the harsh fungicides and chemicals in current wax coatings.

So you can feel good about the food you buy, and so can the person who grew it for you.

Introducing NanoCoat . . .

Our Protein-Fortified Nanocomposite Coating Technology

The images speak for themselves, and there’s data to back it all up.

These images come from our most recent study with the USDA and prior work published in Advanced Materials that show the incredible effectiveness of our coating. But appearance isn’t everything—and we know that. The coating performed exceptionally in mechanical and chemical testing. NanoCoat has >25% superior performance compared to the industry standard of wax and >50% better than uncoated.

How NanoCoat works?

To maintain texture and moisture, our coating has a strong resistance to water transmission; this keeps the water inside the fruit, preventing it from shriveling. To prevent browning and decay, our coating prevents oxygen from reaching the fruit’s surface. To prevent rotting, our coating also has strong antimicrobial properties - blocking out the microbes.

Our coating has the lowest combined water transmission and oxygen permeability for a natural-derived food coating with superior performance.

Meet the Team

  • Neethu Pottackal

    FOUNDER & CEO

    Neethu Pottackal is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Materials Science and NanoEngineering at Rice University. She graduated with a B.Sc. in Materials Science and Engineering from Cornell University. As a Rawlings Cornell Presidential Research Scholar, Neethu actively worked in the Department of Food Science and Technology, the nation’s leading academic institution for food research. Neethu’s continued fascination with food materials led her to Rice University, where she is currently working to find innovative, green solutions to address food sustainability issues and improve upon the proposed NanoCoat technology.

    Currently, as Rice Innovation Fellow and Rice Venture Scholar, she is working on translating NanoCoat out of the lab. At the 2022 Rice Business Plan Competition, Neethu was one of the top 15 semi-finalists among 42 competing startups and >400 applicants, winning 1st place overall best elevator pitch and NREL sustainability tech prize of $25,000. She also secured another $25,000 as 2nd place winner at the 2022 Napier Rice Launch Challenge among 84 other startups.

  • Dr. Daniel J. Preston

    ADVISOR

    Dr. Daniel J. Preston directs the Preston Innovation Laboratory at Rice University, conducting highly interdisciplinary climate-tech focused research. He is a recipient of the NSF CAREER Award, the ASME Old Guard Early Career Award, and the Energy Polymer Group Certificate of Excellence. His group’s recent work has been published in PNAS, Science Advances, Advanced Intelligent Systems, Advanced Science, and ACS Nano. His lab is funded by NASA, the National Science Foundation, and the Department of Energy, among other sources. Dr. Preston earned his B.S. (2012) in mechanical engineering from the University of Alabama and his M.S. (2014) and Ph.D. (2017) in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Following his graduate degrees, he trained as a postdoctoral fellow from 2017–2019 at Harvard University in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology before joining Rice University as an assistant professor in July 2019.

  • Dr. Ajayan M. Pulickel

    ADVISOR

    Dr. Pulickel M. Ajayan leads the Ajayan Research Group at Rice University, which is involved in the research of advanced nanomaterials with specific application areas in energy, environment, space, and biomedicine. Dr. Ajayan earned his B. Tech in metallurgical engineering from Banaras Hindu University in 1985 and Ph.D. in materials science and engineering from Northwestern University in 1989. Currently, he holds joint appointments in the Departments of Materials Science and NanoEngineering, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and Chemistry.

    Dr. Ajayan is a pioneer in the materials science field related to carbon nanotubes and nanocomposites, serving as advisor for several editorial boards and startups. He is one of the world’s most cited researchers, with more than 229,000 citations and an h-index of 232.