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Montage of photos of 8 women inventors

Top row: Marion O'Brien Donovan, Tara Astigarraga, Madison Maxey, Marilyn Hamilton. Bottom row: Michelle Khine, Marjorie Stewart Joyner, Alexis Lewis, Ellen Ochoa

Shukla holding product packages

Kavita Shukla

March 22, 2021 by Joyce Bedi

Throughout American history, women with diverse backgrounds and interests created inventions that change our lives every day.

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“I really love pursuing things and doing things that make me feel creative.”

Kavita Shukla

While visiting her grandmother in India, twelve-year-old Kavita Shukla accidentally drank contaminated water. Her grandmother brewed a spice tea for her so she wouldn’t get sick.

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Shukla as a small child in her grandmother’s home

A young Kavita Shukla visiting her grandmother in India. Courtesy of The FRESHGLOW Co.

Back at home, Shukla wondered how that tea worked and started an experiment to find out. When she applied the spices to fruits and vegetables, they stayed fresh longer.

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High-school-age Shukla in a chemistry lab

Kavita Shukla won a Lemelson-MIT Program high school invention apprenticeship in 2002. Photo by Donna Coveney, courtesy of Lemelson-MIT Program

She then embedded the spices in paper that could be placed with the produce and patented the idea during her senior year of high school.

Shukla hopes that her all-natural product—FreshPaper—will help end food spoilage and waste, especially in areas where refrigeration isn’t available.

Learn more about Kavita Shukla in her interview with the US Patent and Trademark Office.

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Shukla posing in front of product display table

Kavita Shukla at a farmers market in Washington, DC, 2014. Courtesy of The FRESHGLOW Co.

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Drawing showing uses of FreshPaper in refrigerator, fruit bowl, berry carton, and salad bag

Uses of FreshPaper. Courtesy of The FRESHGLOW Co.


Source for quote above: “Fighting Food Waste with Paper and Spice | Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs,” accessed August 13, 2020, https://www.carnegiecouncil.org/publications/archive/policy_innovations/innovations/00304.

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