A Queensland apple-growing family believes it has made a world-first fruit drink that bottles all of the apple, minus the pips and core.
The Savio family, from Stanthorpe in Queensland's Granite Belt, spent more than a million dollars and three years researching and developing how to get both the skin and the pulp into a commercially acceptable liquid form.
Neither a juice nor a nectar, Upple is pitched as a filling snack and healthy drink.
"One of the things I looked at prior to even coming up with any specific idea was we had to look at things that other people aren't doing," grower Johnny Savio said.
"When an apple is juiced, you throw away the really nutritious parts of the apple, which is the peel, and the pulp, which is fibre," explained brand consultant and project leader Deb Loosely.
"So the challenge was, how could we take a whole apple and value-add it in a way that retained the whole apple goodness?"
Ms Loosely is not surprised a family operation managed to do what bigger juice companies hadn't.
"Large companies tend to be a bit afraid of innovation," she said.
"They're very protective of profits, they run their businesses in a completely different way, they're not nimble, and I think a lot of people in decision-making roles are risk-averse.
"This has been an enormous leap for the family, moving into packaged goods.
"They've really embraced it, but it's been a massive learning curve."
Grower says retailers reject more fruit
The Savios decided to value-add to offset a steady decline in apple income, which Mr Savio blames on increasingly tough retail specifications.
Eating-quality fruit with small blemishes which was good enough for supermarkets 10 or 20 years ago is now rejected.
"Anything that's just a tiny bit off the mark is basically downgraded to a juice price, and juice price is unviable for us to be in business," Mr Savio said.
He consulted food processing engineer Gordon Young to turn his idea into a commercial product.
His key request was it had to taste like a fresh apple.
"Early on, my very simple attempt at it didn't work and I must admit at that stage there was some wondering about how we could make it happen," Mr Young said.
"Probably the biggest challenge was to find a way of getting the viscosity, the thickness of the product, down to a level that was pleasant to drink."
That was achieved with the assistance of the University of Queensland, which also helped measure apple fibre particles so they couldn't be noticed in the mouth.
After two years of pulverising apples, Mr Young has a successful process that has a patent pending.
"There are some secrets we're keeping very close because they've been areas that the Savios have spent a lot to get developed," he said.
A way to boost fruit consumption
The Savios hope Upple's four-month shelf life will encourage people to lift their consumption of fruit.
"It appeals to parents because often they find it difficult to have fruit with them when they're out and about, and to the 18-to-40 age group, which is very conscious about consuming healthy nutritious snacks on the run with no fat, no added sugar and lots of fibre," Ms Loosley said.
Local fruit and vegetable shop owner Sam Giacca has no problem selling fruit with small blemishes, but knows how hard it is for growers to see it discounted to juice prices.
He's glad to see someone acted to cut waste and save so many apples from a low-value fate.
"Juice [price] is really a pittance to what the cost of production is, so if the grower can make a little bit more for that and sustain operation and his kids and his children's future, it's wonderful," he said.
The Savio family hope sales will outgrow their pilot bottling pant.
They then plan to build a factory on their farm to use out-of-spec apples from the whole district.
Watch this story on ABC TV's Landline at 12:30pm on Sunday, or on iview.
