A Spanish company claims to have begun commercializing a revolutionary method for preserving one of the country’s major exports, fruit and vegetables.
It enables the produce to be frozen without losing flavour or vitamins or destroying the texture or cellular structure, according to José María Roger, president of Nice Fruit. He also says no chemicals are used in a process that the company has patented and he claims will preserve the product for up to three years. Based on original research carried out by the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, the system was first tested publicly at a wholesale market in Barcelona in 2012. But now Nice Fruit has set up a factory at nearby Castellbisbal with a capacity of 900 tonnes a month.
It also plans to open others in the Philippines, Colombia, México, Ecuador and Peru with local partners who are ready to finance the EUR18m cost of each one. Barcelona itself is within a few hours of fruits ranging from melons to strawberries and pears, allowing the produce to be picked at the optimum time, says Roger.
“We are not so much revolutionising the product but agriculture, because we are stabilizing the prices and protecting the grower… guaranteeing him an agreed price all year round and asking him only to focus on quality,” says Roger.
He said it would prove particularly useful for situations such as this year, with the Russian ban on buying European Union produce and many tonnes having to be destroyed to prevent a dramatic collapse in prices.
It should be noted that Nice Fruit has won the award for the Best Product of the Year in the Foodservice category by the international Jury of the 2014 SIAL.