Avocado apocalypse averted thanks to deep-freeze breakthrough

Amid reports of rising avocado prices in Mexico and the U.S., one food expert says Canada is also experiencing an “avocado crisis” that could abate by the fall. (Foodie Factor/Pexels)

TORONTO — Breathe easy, guacamole lovers.

The possibility of a world without avocados has been averted thanks to an Australian scientist who found a way to indefinitely preserve the pitted fruit.

Concerns have been raised about the sustainability of avocados. The World Economic Forum identified avocados as one of the world’s most at-risk foods because they require plenty of water to grow, and climate change could dramatically restructure the supply chain to make them impossible to grow.

University of Queensland PhD student Chris O’Brien has been exploring the science of cryopreservation, a process that uses liquid nitrogen to deep-freeze biological materials. Cryopreservation is commonly used to freeze human sperm and eggs and has also frozen plants, such as bananas, apples and grape vines.

But anyone who’s tried making guacamole knows that avocados can be fickle, and preserving the fruit has long eluded scientists. When O’Brien began trying to preserve avocado shoot tips, which eventually yield avocado fruit, he says he always ended up with “brown mush.”

The solution, he eventually found, was to prepare the shoot tips with vitamin C, sucrose and cold temperatures to ready them for their plunge into -196 C conditions.

“It was a question of trial and error to get the optimal mixture and correct time points,” O’Brien said in a statement.

With the method perfected, O’Brien can now revive the frozen avocado shoot tips in a petri dish in 20 minutes. It takes about two months for the tips to sprout leaves and roots, making them ready for planting in an orchard.

So far O’Brien has successfully revived 80 avocado plants, which are being monitored at a greenhouse.

Now, if global warming decimates our food chain supply and eventually makes our planet unliveable — a future that most scientists agree could be coming if global emissions aren’t dramatically curbed — at least our descendents will be able to enjoy a nice brunch.​