My job here at Apeel, a food-systems technology company in Goleta, California, is to unlock how genes and metabolites, or products of food breakdown, control the degradation of fruits such as mango and avocado. The company uses plant-based coatings to double the shelf life of produce and reduce waste from a range of crops — including apples, mangos, cucumbers and citrus fruits.As a senior biologicial scientist, I monitor fruits’ basic physiology at harvest, including respiration and loss of...