It was enough to demonstrate the molecule’s potential to extend the shelf life of the fruit, which is highly perishable. “The peptide alone, without any other components, maintained the characteristics of ripe fruit after five days — which, for a strawberry, is a long storage period. Vicente has been studying the peptide since his master’s degree nearly 20 years ago. They found that the peptide treatments did not interfere with the fruit’s flavour and did not significantly affect the phenolic compounds or total soluble solids. “In addition, we aim to produce the peptide on a large scale using models well-established in the literature, such as yeast.