January 2006
Fizzy Fruit expands to schools across the country.  Fizzy Fruit Friday – an innovative school assembly focused on health and wellness performed by Radio Disney talents – debuts in schools.

December 2005
Fizzy Fruit pilots in Albany, Oregon elementary schools. The pressure vessel technology was perfected to integrate it into the school kitchen. The company calls this vessel technology a Fizzolator.

November 2005
In a major coup for the business, The Fizzy Fruit Company initiated a partnership with Sodexho USA, the nation’s largest food service provider to offer Fizzy Fruit to schools across the country.

June 2004
To gauge consumer reaction to carbonated fruit, a Fizzy Fruit kiosk is opened for a month at Mall 205 in Portland. Consumer feedback was wildly successful.

August 2003
British entrepreneur Adam Lindemann and his idea factory Mind Fund became a chief investor in The Fizzy Fruit Company.  Under Lindemann’s leadership, an executive team was formed to create a business model to focus on marketing its carbon dioxide diffusion technology to schools and fruit processing plants.

May 2000 – November 2002
After accepting The Fizzy Fruit Company’s second application for a SBIR grant in 2002, the USDA boosted the development of commercial fruit-carbonating technology with $75,000 for research. During this period, a microprocessor system that measured pressure, fruit mass, and temperature helped the Food Innovation Center optimize methods for mass production of carbonated fruit.

May 1999
The Food Innovation Center, a joint research facility operated by Oregon State University and the Oregon Department of Agriculture, opens with Wells as the superintendent. Wells along with Qingyue Ling, FIC product development engineer, begin refining Kaufman’s method of carbonating fruit.

Fall 1998
Kaufman contacted John Henry Wells, an Oregon State University professor who had previously researched the use of carbon dioxide absorption in meat packaging. Although his work explored the potential to discourage microbial growth, Wells was eager to study fruit carbonation.

October 1994
While sailing in Galveston, Texas, neurobiologist Galen Kaufman realized the pear he had picked up from a cooler tasted like it was carbonated. The dry ice inside the cooler had sublimated carbon dioxide gas that absorbed into the fruit. Because most fruit types consist primarily of water, the gas accumulated within the liquid content of the pear. When the lid of the air-tight cooler was opened, built-up pressure in the container was released. This allowed bubbles of carbon dioxide to escape the pear, resulting in a fizzy sensation that intrigued Kaufman. He went home, and tried to reproduce the effect.