Posts Tagged “fresh fruits and vegetables”
By Kenneth Cavallaro ALC Boston
Some of my earliest memories involve fresh produce – watching cardboard crates of plump tomatoes and glistening peppers being unloaded at the docks of my family’s wholesale produce warehouse, sampling sweet berries, and vigilantly checking for damaged products beside my grandfather, father, and uncle. As the third generation of a produce family, fresh produce was a major part of my childhood.
At the time, I simply enjoyed the deliciousness of fresh fruits and vegetables and thought little of where they were grown or how they reached my kitchen table. As an adult, I now find myself fascinated by the process. How long does it take to pick a crop and get it from the farm to a customer’s table? What practices utilized during transport best preserve product quality? A great majority of our country’s produce comes from California and Mexico, with their ideal growing climates and lengthy growing seasons. In 2022 alone, 590,906 truckloads of imported produce were shipped from Mexico to the U.S. in 40,000-pound loads. How can so much perishable freight remain fresh when traveling across the country?
Danny Mandel, founder and former CEO of SunFed in Nogales, Arizona, has over 30 years of experience in the produce industry and was able to answer these questions. Mandel reports that it takes one day to pick, pack, and load a fresh crop and another two to five days to reach its final destination. What keeps fragile produce so fresh after this transport time? It requires growers to harvest produce at the optimal time and package it in sturdy containers that allow air to circulate while preventing bruising. Refrigerated van drivers and transport companies further extend product longevity with stringent adherence to temperature requirements – which vary by fruit and vegetable variety. Following temperature requirements on bill of lading instructions and carefully monitoring temperature gauges extend freshness and prevent the formation of mold. Furthermore, practices such as loading and unloading quickly help keep any adverse outside weather conditions or drastically different temperatures from damaging the product.
According to the USDA, Postmaster General Albert Burleson launched the Farm to Table program in 1914. The program consisted of picking up produce and other farm fresh items and delivering the goods as quickly as possible to retailers, ultimately reaching America’s kitchen tables with healthy products still as fresh as possible. Previously, unconsumed produce was destined for the compost heap. Now, growers could sell farm goods for financial gain to more consumers. The advent of temperature-controlled freight further made it possible to deliver products in a timely manner.
With the high demand for fresh produce, consumers can expect the industry to continue to advance in delivering produce as quickly as possible. Greenhouses could allow produce to be grown in colder states to lessen the stress of relying on warmer areas to support our heavy produce consumption and further decrease the transport time from farm to table. There will always be a need to transport the product, but more growing areas across the country would mean increased product freshness by reducing transport time.
Getting produce from the farm to your table as quickly as possible makes for a healthy and enjoyable meal. After 110 years, Postmaster Burleson’s Farm to Table idea continues to make great strides and improve consumer culinary options. The next time you stop by your local grocery store for salad fixings, keep in mind the growers who cultivated a beautiful crop, the dedicated drivers who quickly and safely transported thousands of pounds of product, and even the transportation broker who monitored the delivery of your load.
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Kenneth Cavallaro, Jr. is a carrier manager in the Boston office. He began his career at the Allen Lund Company in February of 2019. Kenneth has been in the transportation industry since May of 1999. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from Salem State University.
kenneth.cavallaro@allenlund.com
As a new year begins, it’s time to look at the trends that dietitians believe consumers will be following. So-called “clean” eating appears to be the biggest food trend for 2016.
“Clean” Eating
“Clean” eating r refers to a diet that is primarily made up of fresh fruit and vegetables. It avoids processed food, and is seen as being among 2016’s biggest food trends, according to Today’s Dietitian and Pollock Communications.
Seeds
Likewise, seeds should be a bigger part of consumers’ diets in 2016 with 55 percent of registered dietitians believing seeds have superfood nutrition, displacing kale as a trendy food source. Avocados are expected to be nearly as popular, along with ancient grains.
“Free” of…
Consumers will continue to express a strong preference for “free” of certain things, like genetically modified organisms (GMO), gluten, and antibiotics.
Spiralizing
Vgetable spiralizers are trending up while pasta sales decline (6 percent in the U.S., a whopping 25 percent in Italy).
“Ancient Foods”
The move toward ancient foods such as grains and superfoods can now become personalized with DNA testing. The foods are also easier to source because ethnic foods and seasonings are becoming very popular, especially those from Africa and the Middle East.
Alternet.com also published a list of 7 food trends to watch for 2016, featuring more plant eating, a rejection of GMOs, eating ugly foods and locavorism, which is the practice of eating locally produced foods.
Fresh food is the fastest growing department at the supermarket,despite Americans are facing rising food prices, plus they are eating more sweets, according to Nielsen Perishables Group. With consumers continuing to lose their taste for frozen and canned goods in 2013, fresh food sales grew 5.4 percent from a year earlier, to $134 billion. They now represent about 30 percent of supermarket sales.
Contributing to the growth of fresh foods is the fact grocers are stocking an ever-greater selection fresh fruits and vegetables, says Jonna Parker, director of Nielsen. Another factor: Mass merchants, such as Wal-Mart Stores, and club stores are selling more fresh foods; these retailers are projected to account for one-quarter of fresh-food sales by 2016.
Nielson reports meat and produce make up the majority of fresh food sales, with 39 percent and 32 percent, respectively, followed by deli, baked goods, and seafood. The mix is different for online orders, however, where meat is a smaller share of sales—consumers prefer to see and touch beef, chicken, and pork before purchasing.
Restaurants and other foodservice entities should be carrying more fresh fruits and vegetables on menus. Why? Because consumers want it.
About 4,000 consumers nationwide were surveyed and 600 foodservice operators were contacted by Datassential in May and June and conclude that ‘produce’ is now a hot food item. Foodservice operators are getting the message and plan to roll out more produce on menus soon.
Foodservice operators, or ‘operators’ for short, include away-from-home food establishments, including restaurants, universities, hospitals, lodging, catering, and others.
“The survey data says about 80 percent of consumers want restaurants to feature more produce on the menu,” said Maeve Webster, senior director of Datassential, Chicago, Ill..
“This is a fundamental shift in what (foods) consumers will eat away from home. It’s not just a fad.”