Processing

To ensure consistent high quality, freshly harvested salad greens are cooled to 2°C in our vacuum cooler immediately upon reaching our Auckland processing factory. It is then quickly moved via a patented misting system especially designed for baby leaf (which maintains close to 100% humidity in the cool store) to the processing rooms. All produce is then thoroughly triple washed and gently dried using our recently purchased air dryer, which removes all moisture from delicate baby leaf produce without bruising or damaging the leaves. Once dry, the produce is trimmed, sorted, packed, and ready for delivery as soon as possible after arrival. The speedy streamlining of our processing enables our salad greens to be picked, chilled, washed, dried, packed and delivered to supermarkets throughout New Zealand within a maximum timeframe of 48 hours to ensure maximum freshness and flavour.

The production of sprouts and wheatgrass is equally streamlined with precise computer control over all facets of their growing, from heat and lighting to nutrient systems. This enables us to optimise the growing conditions that produce thousands of kilograms of product every month of the year.

Mung bean sprouts are now grown in two new purpose-built Mung bean rooms, both fitted with 24 growing bins. Each growing bin is capable of producing up to 1000 kg of sprouts per harvest. The automated growing system sees to it that each bin of sprouts is given the appropriate nutrients, temperature and water needed for the length of their six-day growing cycle - and is capable of simultaneously looking after multiple bins in different growing stages. Our ongoing investment in state-of-the-art automated growing systems enables us to provide a consistent daily supply of fresh new sprouts.

If that’s not enough, all our staff are thoroughly trained in food safety and best practice manufacturing methods, and our entire factory is temperature-controlled and monitored to enable year-round production. This together with the factory’s ‘high care’ area for packing and processing guarantees a consistently high and reliable standard of produce at all times.