It is supposed to reduce decay in fruit that is transported long distances--it takes 40 days, for instance, to ship apples and grapes from Chile to Hong Kong.

FORBES: The Ozone Solution

There was a pilot investigation program, which, among other things, traced a 1904 fruit-decay crisis in California to cuts in the fruit from stem clippers and the fingernails of handlers (and, along the way, introduced modern packing methods industry-wide).

NEWYORKER: Testing, Testing