Where Precision Meets Protection: How LiVA and Dyson Farming Are Keeping British Strawberries Premium
- LiVA Newsroom
- Jul 15
- 3 min read
Following a structured trial programme, LiVA Biotechnology and Dyson Farming advance to commercial-scale pilot for the 2026 British winter strawberry season
LiVA Newsroom | 3 min read
London, June 22, 2026 — LiVA, together with Dyson Farming, one of the UK’s leading precision farming pioneers, announced the advancement of their collaboration to a commercial-scale pilot in partnership with one of the leading retailers in the UK.
The move follows the successful completion of a structured trial programme conducted throughout winter 2025–26, validating LiVA’s prebiotic bio-protection technology across Dyson Farming’s premium British strawberry operation.
The Trials: What the Data Showed
The trial programme demonstrated that LiVA-treated strawberries maintained Dyson Farming’s premium quality standard through every stage of the supply chain — from field dispatch through retail arrival and into the consumer’s home. Within two days of reaching the shelf, LiVA-treated fruit avoided the markdowns that typically erode grower returns as fruit begins to deteriorate — significantly reducing the food waste and delivering more premium British berries to the market. By day six post-harvest, LiVA-treated punnets delivered twice the proportion of harvest-fresh fruit compared to untreated controls, preserving the eating experience that Dyson Farming’s growing standards are built to deliver.
“Strawberries are inherently delicate, making traditional picking and packing heavily reliant on manual handling" says Oskar Szymanski, Senior Technical Manager at Dyson Farming. "Our focus is shifting toward robotic harvesting and advanced automation to reduce this dependency, improving consistency, efficiency, and handling precision across the supply chain. However, even with highly controlled growing conditions and automated systems, minor surface bruising remains almost unavoidable. Historically, this has required slowing production lines to allow for manual re-inspection—impacting output and increasing the food waste.
With the integration of LiVA alongside automated processes, we can introduce a new level of confidence. Robotics and automation will eventually enable faster, more consistent handling, while LiVA provides an added layer of protection at the fruit level. This combination significantly reduces the need for intervention, maintains packing line efficiency, and—critically—helps prevent the food waste significantly.
The result is a dual benefit: we preserve product quality through automation and actively reduce food waste by extending the resilience of the fruit, even where minor bruising to the berry surface may occur. Importantly, this is achieved using a natural, pre-biotic solution rather than chemical treatments—supporting both sustainability goals and consumer expectations.”
The loss lands on every link of the chain: growers facing rejection, importers absorbing disposal costs, retailers marking down stock that should have sold at full price, and consumers paying for fruit that disappoints. When quality is inconsistent, everyone loses at once. British consumers know this pattern well. Mango sits on the counter for three days, still hard. Then it collapses overnight.
How is Works
LiVA’s patented prebiotic formulation activates the beneficial microbiome already present on the fruit’s surface - outcompeting spoilage organisms, suppressing humidity-mediated decay, and stabilising the fruit through the physical stresses of modern logistics. The format is a drop-in sticker, which eventually will move into in printed solution applied at packing, requiring zero capital expenditure and no major changes to existing packing process. It is fully compatible with Dyson Farming’s premium, low-intervention growing practices.
“Dyson Farming is exactly the kind of partner you want when you are bringing a new technology to market" says Ifat Peled Dinstag, LiVA CEO & co-founder. "They combine world-class growing standards with a genuine commitment to testing what works — and a willingness to back innovation that serves their long-term vision. LiVA is designed to complement that approach: to make it possible to produce more, maintain the highest standards, and never compromise on taste or quality. The UK is a market that takes both premium produce and sustainability seriously, and this collaboration reflects that.”
Commercial Pilot
In 2026, during multiple trials with a leading UK mango packer, LiVA applied its prebiotic sticker to standard Brazilian Kent mango cartons and tracked the results throughout the retail window.
The commercial pilot will run across Dyson Farming’s strawberry operation during the 2026 British winter strawberry season. Further details on scale and scope will be announced in due course.
LiVA currently operates active pilots across five markets and four continents, spanning strawberries and bell peppers. The UK represents a strategic priority market for LiVA — a country where high-quality growing practices, retailer standards, and sustainability ambition are setting the pace for the global fresh produce industry.
