Leading potato supplier Branston has begun work on a new £5 million factory extension to handle potatoes for the convenience sector at its main site near Lincoln.

According to the company the 1,700 sq. ft extension, which is being built by Charcroft Construction, will peel and prepare potatoes which do not meet Class I specification before sale to convenience food producers for use in a range of products such as prepared mash and ready meals. As well as reducing waste by utilising crops which to not meet pre-packing specifications, the facility will create 20 new jobs.

Branston technical director Mark Willcox told reporters, “We’ll be adding value to potatoes that don’t make it into a pack as a class I product, which is a great way to reduce food waste – a real win for both farmers and consumers.

“We supply prepared vegetables to the UK’s top retailers and this extension will go a long way to help us meet the growing demand we’re seeing in this area. We expect that this new business-to-business part our customer portfolio will continue to grow alongside the very successful chilled prepared vegetable lines that we currently sell to the country’s leading supermarkets.”

Photo Credit: Branston

The post Branston begins factory extension appeared first on Hort News on 17 June 2017.