Tag Archives: salads

Steve’s Leaves launches new product

Vitacress has launched a new salad bowl product in Waitrose stores under its Steve’s Leaves brand to accompany its range of bagged leafy salads.

The 130g bowl includes three types of tomatoes, orange peppers and cucumber, as well as watercress and has a retail price of £2.39. The company claims that the watercress used in the salad has been planted more densely and harvested earlier to give a more delicate flavour and tender texture. Other leaves in the product include red baby cos and baby chard.

Steve’s Leaves brand manager Emily Dow, said: “At Steve’s Leaves we pride ourselves on providing unique and interesting products within a competitive market. The salad bowl market is worth £168.8 million and has seen growth of 4.3 per cent year on year. Convenience and flavour are two of the main attributes of the Luscious Leafy Tomato Trio; it’s an ideal option whether the consumer is cooking dinner for their family or looking for an accompaniment to a light lunch.”

The post Steve’s Leaves launches new product appeared first on Hort News.

Extending shelf life of leafy greens

A novel way to extend the shelf life of leafy crops including lettuce, cabbage, celery, spinach and parsley has been presented at the recent 19th Agritech Israel exhibition in Tel Aviv.

Invented by Dr. Rivka Elbaum of Hebrew University’s Faculty of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Quality Sciences in Rehovot and being brought to market by the University’s Yissum technology transfer company, they system uses a solution into which the produce is dipped, which then delays deterioration of the produce.

Yissum CEO Yaacov Michlin said, “The novel method invented by Dr. Elbaum is a simple, low-cost solution for delaying senescence in leafy greens, thereby increasing their shelf life. The method, which has been tested on lettuce, could considerably increase the profitability of leafy greens, which comprise a large fraction of the fresh vegetable market.”

The post Extending shelf life of leafy greens appeared first on Hort News.

Wellpack to enter salad market

Evesham-based fruit and vegetable supplier Wellpak has announced it is launching a new salads business unit to supply products such as cucumbers, tomatoes, garlic and peppers.

Rebecca Quiney has been appointed as Commercial Manager to head up the new unit. Rebecca previously spent over 12 years as Trading Director at Samsara, based in Evesham, where she was responsible for procurement and category management of all accounts including sales and development of new business.

Wellpak, which has previously focused on berries, exotic vegetables and legumes, grapes, exotic fruit and cherries, together with a bespoke service called Wellpak Complement, has also recently employed a new national account manager.

The post Wellpack to enter salad market appeared first on Hort News.

G’s trialling more efficient lettuce production

Major salad and vegetable producer G’s Fresh has revealed trials into a new lettuce propogation method during a visit to its Barway site near Ely in Cambridgeshire by members of the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution (RABI).

The company operates a propagation unit at Second Willow farm and has traditionally used a typical peat block system with seeds being germinated in individual peat blocks before being packed and subdivided in trays by machines for transfer to the greenhouses.

According to the Eastern Daily Press, this season, the farm is trialling an alternative system to improve efficiency. The traditional operation grows up to 170 plants per tray, while a new “plant tape” system can sustain 900 plants per tray, using much less peat and reducing labour costs. The young lettuces are grown on paper strips which are eventually fed through the planting machinery – making it possible to plant up to a million lettuces in a day.

Charles Shropshire said: “We are always looking at our efficiency and sustainability. Because we are using massive amounts of peat in the blocks, we are being asked questions about what we are doing to reduce our peat usage.

“These trays hold five times the amount of plants in the same area, so the amount of peat is greatly reduced. It makes it faster, with less labour. We have been using plant tape in Spain for two years, and we are trialling it on 5pc here this year. If it is successful, we will want to grow many more, and I think all the little gem in the group will be from plant tape in the coming years.”

The post G’s trialling more efficient lettuce production appeared first on Hort News.

New chair for Leafy Salads Association

After Graham Clarkson of Vitacress stepped down as Chairman of the British Leafy Salads Association in March, the Industry body that represents UK growers and packers of salads has appointed Valefresco Ltd’s Technical Manager, Jackie Harris, as its new Chairman.

Jackie brings with her more than 25 years of experience in fresh produce, in particular salads and herbs, having worked for some of the biggest names in the sector, including Organic Farm Foods, Lighthorne Herbs, Vitacress, VHB Herbs and Lincolnshire Herbs.

The Association hopes to benefit from Jackie’s in-depth knowledge and expertise in outdoor, protected and baby leaf crops. In her current role at Valefresco, Jackie manages the technical aspects of over 1000 acres of outdoor salads and more than 45 acres of protected cropping.

Commenting on her appointment, Jackie said, “I am delighted to have been elected as Chair. Since starting out in the business at the tender age of fourteen, working for a local market gardener, my passion for fresh produce has gone from strength to strength. Leafy salads is a vibrant industry and I’m looking forward to working alongside BLSA members and other organisations to further raise its profile to promote British salads and produce at every opportunity.”

The post New chair for Leafy Salads Association appeared first on Hort News.

Florette refreshes pack sizes

Branded salad company Florette has introduced an updated logo and new pack sizes in what it says is an effort to solve waste and inject growth into the leafy prepared salad category.

After commissioning research over a six month period, which the company described as, “intensive qualitative and quantitative research into consumer attitudes, purchase intent and pricing” it has developed a new ‘range blueprint.’

Neil Sanderson, managing director of Florette, commented, “Replacing ambiguous ‘serving numbers’ with pictures of salad portions on plates provides a new, clearer indication of how many platefuls, side portions and handfuls of product are contained within each bag.

“These tangible and understandable portion indicators make it easier for shoppers to judge how much product is in each bag, which informs how much they need to buy to suit their needs. Shoppers are telling us they want to find what they want easily, in order to buy what they need, and then use what they buy. We are responding responsibly to the desire for reduced wastage and making shopping for salads easier by optimising the pack sizes and prices of our key products.”

Florette hopes that the moves, which include pack size reductions from 200g to 170g, could generate growth in the sector worth more than £8 million.

The post Florette refreshes pack sizes appeared first on Hort News on 29 april 2015.