WASHINGTON, D.C. – United Fresh this week announces a record 45 fresh fruit and vegetable innovations as finalists for the United Fresh Produce Association’s 2015 New Product Awards. This year’s finalists will compete in five categories for the title of Best New Products at United Fresh 2015, June 8-10 in Chicago.
“We’re excited to have a record of 45 finalists for our New Product Awards, which is a clear indicator of the ever increasing ingenuity in fresh produce,” said John Toner, United’s Vice President of Convention & Industry Collaboaration. “We’re proud to showcase these innovative products at the United Fresh 2015 show in Chicago, which continues to be the home for innovation and creativity in the produce business.”
“New products like these are an essential element of the success of the fresh and fresh-cut produce industry, said Tom Stenzel, United’s president and CEO. “Our member companies bring foresight about market trends and emerging technologies, and then apply creative ideas to capitalize on those trends, which contributes to the growth and profitability of our entire industry.”
The 2015 New Product Award finalists:
Best New Food Safety Solution
Wax-Oft Birko – Booth #2430 Specialty cleaner for remove fruit and vegetable waxes from conveyor belts, brushes and processing equipment. Wax build up can become a harborage area for pathogens. Due to the hydrophobic or water repelling properties of wax, a special blend of surfactants and solvents is needed to effectively remove this soil.
FlashLink PDF Multi-Use Data Logger DeltaTrack, Inc. – Booth #1342 A plug-and-play temperature logger with built-in USB connector and on-board software, easy to download data without special reading devices or installing software. Accurate, reliable, NIST traceable monitoring and recording for safe and sanitary handling of produce, it’s a low cost solution for meeting FSMA, food safety and HACCP requirements during transport and in any facility storing or processing produce. One logger can be used multiple times, and several configurations are available in ºC or ºF: 7-days, 15-days, 31-days and 75-days. Easy push-button operation resets and restarts the logger for its next use.
Harmonized Produce Safety Standard (HPSS) GLOBALG.A.P. North America, Inc. – Booth #2248 ANSI-accredited and GFSI-level implementation of the Harmonized Standards developed by the produce industry as its food safety audit solution. GO Lux Locus Traxx Worldwide – Booth #1209 The GO LUX is the first recyclable, low cost, real-time temperature and location-monitoring device for perishables… and now we’ve added enhanced security. The LUX senses light, alerts you when your products are at risk on the road and records when doors are opened at the dock.
PakSense AutoSense Facility, powered by Contolant PakSense – Booth #2019 Monitors temperature and humidity in stationary areas such as storage and processing facilities, walk-in coolers and freezers, and retail cold cases. Easily installed, this system collects and stores data in a centralized cloud database where alerts and compliance reports can be automatically generated. The system is completely wireless and uses gateways that connect to the cloud using cellular connectivity. The system is extensible – the same gateways used in your facility can be leveraged as part of your outbound temperature-monitoring program providing continuous visibility of your supply chain in one, easily accessed, centralized web interface.
Best New Fruit Product
Rockit Apple Chelan Fresh – Booth #1435 The Rockit apple from New Zealand is sweet, crunchy and "distinctively fresh". The fruit which naturally grows small and features a red blush coloro, originated by crossing a cultivar from the Rose eries of apples with a crapple. The Rockit is a natural, non-GMA, healthy snack food that is packaged in a convenient "Grab and Go" tube.
Crunch Pak DipperZ Crunch Pak – Booth #1832 Crunch Pak, the fresh sliced apples specialist, launched an assortment of fresh snack products called DipperZ that feature packages of fresh sliced apples or carrots paired with an assortment of complimentary dips such as chocolate sauce, caramel sauce, Greek yogurt, peanut butter and Ranch dressing.
SUNSET® WOW™ Berries Mastronardi Produce/Sunset® – Booth #1626 Wonders of Winter™ – It took us many years to find the ultimate secret to growing ridiculously sweet strawberries. In the winter, great berries are a rare find. That's why we harvest ours exclusively in the frigid months when the fields are sleeping. Grown to perfection in our Michigan greenhouses, we call them Wonders of Winter™. Go ahead, take a bite, and say WOW!
Naturipe's New "On-the-Go" Fresh Blueberry Mix Naturipe Farms, LLC – Booth #1235
Naturipe introduces two new "Ready to Eat" fresh fruit snacks, Mango/Blueberry and Grape/Blueberry. Both new combinations as well as our core blueberry snacks have strong shelf appeal in our fun, high graphic packaging. These new fresh blueberry blends comes in two convenient sizes, single serve and trios.
Wonderful Sweet Scarletts Texas Red Grapefruit
Paramount Citrus – Booth #1800
Wonderful Sweet Scarletts is the first consumer-branded grapefruit of its kind. Supported by high-graphic packaging and POS, and consumer marketing (national PR, print, and FSIs), Sweet Scarletts is putting a spotlight back on grapefruit, a declining category, by focusing on the sweet taste and phenomenal eating quality. After a successful Midwest test in Feb 2014, Sweet Scarletts was made available nationwide in grocery, mass and club.
Jansal Valley Fruit Sid Wainer & Son – Booth #2010
Jansal Valley® Dried Fruits promote a healthy alternative to other more commercially available snacks. We have carefully selected a variety of flavors and textures, from the exotic to the classic, including a selection of all-natural and organic dried sliced fruits, which are made without preservatives or additives, yet still maintain wonderful flavor and color. All of the fruit for these products comes from California and is GMO Free.
Fresh Blenders Apples
Stemilt Growers – Booth #1456 Apples are a natural start to any juice or smoothie and with Fresh Blenders by Stemilt Growers, creating healthy juices and smoothies has never been easier. Packaged in convenient, re-sealable 5-pound pouch bags, Fresh Blenders come in two types (Sweet and Tart) and multiple apple varieties for each. The value pack provides the exact quality of fruit that consumers look for to create juice/smoothies at home. It also directly markets the intended use of the apples inside to the growing number of shoppers who partake in this trend. A blender shaped bag, recipes, and delicious fruit make this vibrant new package stand out in produce departments, and helps produce merchandisers create a juicing/blending destination in every department. Fresh Blenders launched in October 2014 and have been successfully sold in markets nationwide.
Best New Packaging
Del Monte Pure Earth™ Del Monte Fresh Produce, Inc. – Booth #1205 To make Pure Earth™ juice, we keep it simple. We use succulent Del Monte Gold® pineapples, hand-picked at the peak of ripeness from our farms in Costa Rica, and juice them only with the finest fruit. We don’t use fillers or concentrate. Pure Earth ™ is Mother Nature in its juiciest form.
Green Bee Lemon & Lime Combo Bag
Earth Source Trading, Inc. – Booth #2118 Lemon & Lime Combination Pack combines 2 of the most sought after citrus items for parties and events. Available as organic or conventional.
Clip2Clip
Giro Pack, Inc. – Booth #2005 Giro Clip2Clip® is a soft mesh clipped convenience package developed as the new EASY OPEN soft mesh package. A different color mesh yarn can emphasis the easy open area. The Clip2Clip® also has a convenient ready to display counter box to promote healthy eating! Goodbye candy, hello Clip2Clip®!
ReadyRipe Watermelon Pouch
Maglio & Company – Booth #1433 The package is a gusseted pouch that holds 1/4" cut or 1/2" cut slices of watermelon. The pouch can extend the shelf life of watermelon for up to 11 days versus the shelf life of conventional overwrap and trays.
Maxwell Chase "Mini-Containers"
Maxwell Chase Technologies, LLC – Booth #2604 The "Fresh-R-Pax" mini containers are the perfect size for 2.5oz and 4.0oz single serve portions of the fresh cut fruit and vegetables, offering over 10 days of shelf life. The "Fresh-R-Pax" absorbent pad is sealed to the base of each container and has a tamper evident easy peal-able lidding film.
New Pint
Mucci Farms – Booth #2026 New from Mucci Farms, the New Pint Series. Sleek, stylish and sophisticated. The New Pint, and our dual compartment Fresh Mix are both perfect for on the go snacking.
NatureSweet Tomatoes – Glorys 10.5 oz. "Blossom"
NatureSweet, Ltd. – Booth #1250 Unique and innovative with a design that showcases the product with high visual appeal while continuing to deliver on key attributes such as a resealable label, a rinse-ready feature, and protection of the fruit to ensure the highest quality, freshness and taste in today's marketplace.
Peel and Reseal Fresh Blueberry Container
Naturipe Farms, LLC – Booth #1235 Naturipe introduces their second generation of Heat Seal with a “state of the art” peel and reseal technology. This new design allows consumers to conveniently open the entire top of container and simply seal it back up to maintain freshness and quality. Made with 30 less plastic and is 100% recyclable.
Fresh Seal Flip Top
Packline West Inc. – Booth #2426 A flexible film top seal solution with a break away skeleton rim providing a unique flip top opening that both is tamper evident and resealable. Package can be sealed with either heat sealing equipment or an FDA approved direct food contact adhesive. Package is designed to replace most current tub and lid or clamshell style packaging with a 35-40% overall reduction in plastic as well as eliminating paper labels.
Poco Bites – Cocktail Cucumbers
Pure Flavor – Booth #1246 A fun, delicious and nutritious snack. It is crispy and crunchy, a perfectly healthy snack for the whole family. An innovative approach with its convenience packs and engaging product packaging.
Grab-n-Go Pomegranate Aril Snack Cups
Ruby Fresh – Booth #1650 Ruby Fresh is pleased to introduce our new Grab-n-Go pomegranate aril packs. With convenient 2 or 4 cup packs, our Jewel Cups are sure to be a hit for any upcoming gatherings, or for people who are on the go and would like a quick healthy and energizing snack at school, work , or before a grueling workout. Designed for quick retail turns and a perfect stand-alone display, Ruby Fresh Jewel Cups are now available.
SunFed Perfect Melons
SunFed – Booth #1842 We needed someway to pop our drab watermelon bins in stores and what better way than with a little pop art. Borrowing from Roy Lichtenstein, we took a couple of comic book covers from the 40’s and reworked them much like he did in back in the early 60’s. The results are eye-catching billboards for the produce department that should not only lift sales but also brighten the entire department.
The Incredible Grape Patch
Sunlight International Sales – Booth #2239 The Incredible Grape Patch features a self standing, easy to rinse colander bag, from which the rest of the point of sale materials extend. The Incredible Grap Patch is geared to capture the attention of adults, while at the same time appealing to children.
True Rebel Mix – a revolution in flavor!
Village Farms – Booth #2046 Village Farms Olde World Flavor Collection introduces a unique pack of tomatoes in a rainbow of color each with a distinct shape and flavor. Consumer focused label Chef image QR Code to exclusive recipe created by corporate Chef Darren Brown. Fun variety, health facts and nutritional information available.
Safety Reseal
Yerecic Label – Booth #1434 Industry packaging issues prompted the design of the Safety Reseal label to help create more secure packaging for produce packed in clamshells. This label construction keeps clamshells closed during transit, ensures safety of the product through tamper evident features and allows customers to reseal packages to maintain freshness.
Best New Packing/Processing Equipment
Watermelon Peeler Chunker ABL – Booth #2420 Innovative system to obtain watermelon chunk/spear directly from the whole fruit.
Atlas Pacific FC15 Fruit Chunker
Atlas Pacific Engineering Company, Inc. – Booth #1814 The FC15 is a compact machine solution for transforming pineapples, cantaloupe and honeydew into ready-to-eat chunks and spears. The unique design takes whole fruit, cores, removes seed membrane (melons), peels and cuts finished chunks or spears. The FC15 accepts a full range of fruit sizes without adjustments and is capable of changing from pineapples to melons with only a HMI program selection. The machine operates "on demand" up to 15 pieces of fruit/minute, enabling processor to reduce labor, recover yield, increase production and improve food safety.
CA-10 Clipping Machine with Automatic Reel Feeding System
Giro Pack, Inc. – Booth #2005 CA-10 by Giro revolutionizes the world of traditional net clipped packing. It is no longer necessary to remove feeding tubes and load net. The new CA-10 save 68% operating costs due to consumables automatic refill system. This is all thanks to the automatic loading system developed and patented by Giro.
Adaptive Robotic Pick and Place of Soft Fruit and Vegetables
Heinzen Manufacturing Intl. – Booth #1829 Heinzen Manufacturing's Integrated "Soft Robotics" Work Cell Technology: Combining 7-axis robotics and vision technology, with a unique "soft touch" gripping actuator, HMI is now able to bring automated solutions to strategic product handling processes traditionally performed by manual labor. Consistency and increased food safety can now be achieved in the field of sorting, placing, and orienting fruits and vegetables.
FlexFresh Liner
PerfoTec – Booth #2630 PerfoTec extends the shelf life of fresh produce in-store and during transportation. The new Flexfresh Liner bags help growers and traders save money during transport. By reducing the weight loss to almost 0% and enabling them to reach new markets. The new smart bags can be used in existing crates and boxes.
Falcon pre-sort for Fresh Cut
TOMRA Sorting Solutions – Booth #2332 The Falcon is the cost-effective pre-sorter for the fresh cut industry. The Falcon sorter processes high volumes, tailored to our customers’ business. The Falcon removes unwanted material brought into the production line from the field (droppings, rodents, bugs, plastic, wood, soil clumps, stones…). Since fresh cut is greatly subject to weather conditions, location … the Falcon ensures that, irrespective of the state of the product, the pre-sorting runs balanced and secure. So that further down the processing line a much more uniform product can be processed and an indisputable final product can be guaranteed.
Best New Vegetable Product
Wild Greens & Quinoa Vegetable Salad Kit Apio, Inc. – Booth #2050
Gourmet Salad Kit containing kale, beet greens, julienned broccoli stalk, carrots, red cabbage, crispy quinoa, sliced almonds, feta cheese and a custom blended, creamy avocado herb dressing.
Fresh Express Healthy Salad Kits
Chiquita and Fresh Express – Booth #1838 Fresh Express’ newest line of salad kits, Healthy Plus: Functional Health Salad Kits are redefining salads by focusing on a specific health need and delivering benefits against those needs – in the most delicious and convenient way possible. The Healthy Plus: Functional Health Salad Kits are available in Heart Health, Antioxidant, and Digestive Health. Market research indicated that functional foods or foods that provide added health benefits are on trend and relevant to consumers. Research also indicates that 55% of adults prefer buying packaged foods for nutritional benefits rather than supplements.
BrightFresh™ Squash Blossom
Fresh Origins – Booth #1260 Vibrant golden blossoms for a delicate natural wrapping to stuff with ricotta or feta cheese, crab, shrimp or even rice. BrightFresh™ Squash Blossoms are usually battered and dried, then served with a fresh marinara sauce. They can also be sautéed in olive oil and served topped with parmesan and MicroGreen Basil. Other applications include breakfast frittatas, Squash Blossom soup or pasta. Fill tacos or make a Squash Blossom pizza! Beautiful when sliced and served fresh with salads.
Gotham Greens Genovese Basil
Gotham Greens – Booth # 1751 Our sweet Basil is a fragrant and bright addition to salads, pastas and pestos. It’s rich in flavor as well as Vitamin A and beta carotene. Originated in India 5000 years ago, Basil plays a significant role in diverse cuisines and cultures across the world. This aromatic, ‘royal’ herb is best stored at 50F.
Green Giant™ Fresh Cauliflower Crumbles™
Green Giant™ Fresh – Booth #1659 Green Giant™ Fresh Cauliflower Crumbles™ are washed and ready to use—or steamed right in their pouch. Cauliflower Crumbles are on-trend, and the perfect ingredient for paleo and gluten-free recipes. Our patent-pending process maintains freshness, prevents discoloration and ensures delicious Cauliflower for a variety of dishes for health conscious, convenience oriented consumers.
Love Beets Beet Juice
Love Beets – Booth #1531 Naturally sweet with a rich, smooth taste and just a hint of earthiness, our Organic Beet Juice is wholesome and delicious. The juice is certified organic, non-gmo and gluten free as well!
SUNSET® Flavor Bombs™ Cherry Tomatoes
Mastronardi Produce/Sunset® – Booth #1626 This multi-award winning tomato is grown with seed exclusively sourced from the south of France. Enjoy these rare beauties and experience an explosion of flavors!
Naked Leaf Living Lettuce and Herbs
Mucci Farms – Booth #2026 Invigorate meal time with our Naked Leaf living herbs and lettuce. Crisp, refreshing and alive, we leave the root on to maximize flavor and prolong shelf life.
NatureSweet Tomatoes – Jubilees
NatureSweet, Ltd. – Booth #1250 NatureSweet® Jubilees™ – One Tomato Equals One Sandwich. Jubliees will grow and transform the category by driving consumption and elevate the industry standard as the best tasting sandwich tomato (brix 5.8+) with great slice-ability, no waste and a "best if used by date", filling an unmet consumer need. The second largest usage occasion for tomatoes is sandwiches (70%) – a $1 Billion segment. Perfectly sized for slicing, Jubilees are bigger than Campari and more manageable than TOV. At sizes between 70g – 90g, each tomato is superior in flavor and the perfect size for one sandwich, eliminating waste. Jubilees are currently available in CA and AZ with rapid expansion expected across the U.S. throughout 2015.
Marzanito – Mini Sweet San Marzano Style Tomatoes
Pure Flavor – Booth #1246 There's nothing quite like it. Grown and harvested in a perfectly controlled environment and cared for by the tomato experts of Pure Flavor. It's as sweet as candy, amazingly good tasting for cooking, and perfectly size for all of your everyday snacking needs.
Glory Power Essence
Robinson Fresh – Booth #2038 Responding to consumer demand for power greens, we developed a line of blends under our Glory brand called Power Essence. These blends include fresh greens that when combined give consumers a boost of antioxidants and phytonutrients. Each blend includes kale, a green that has been increasing in popularity the last five years.
Cabernet Estate Reserve™
Village Farms – Booth #2046 With a mouth feel and bite characteristic of buttery crisp tree fruit, and a deep earthy flavor complexity like that of a wonderfully smooth red wine. Grown under the watchful eye of our master growers Olde World Flavor collection, it is perfect for roasting on the vine, made into a sauce, or Caprese Salad.
New Product Award finalists will be displayed at the United Fresh Membership Booth, at United Fresh 2015 in Chicago. The winner in each category will be determined by total votes received as of 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, June 10. United Fresh will announce winners at the Membership Booth on Wednesday, June 10. United Fresh 2015 attendees are encouraged to stop by the United Fresh Membership Booth and vote for their favorite new products on display.
Co-located with FMI Connect 2015 and the International Floriculture Expo, United Fresh 2015 will bring together retail, fresh produce and floral leaders who are searching for unique products and looking to enhance relationships with valuable business partners. Registration is available at www.unitedfreshshow.org. For more information about the New Product Awards Competition contact John Toner, Vice President, Convention and Industry Collaboration, at 202-303-3424.
About United Fresh Produce Association
Founded in 1904, the United Fresh Produce Association brings together companies across every segment of the fresh produce supply chain, including growers, shippers, fresh cut processors, wholesalers, distributors, retailers, foodservice operators, industry suppliers and allied associations. We empower industry leaders to shape sound government policy. We deliver the resources and expertise companies need to succeed in managing complex business and technical issues. We provide the training and development individuals need to advance their careers in produce. Through these endeavors, we unite our industry with a common purpose – to build long-term value for our members and grow produce consumption.
Source: United Fresh Produce Association