“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.
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.
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.
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.
