How would the global produce industry change if tropical fruits had the same shelf life as other produce categories? Would consumers pick a vibrant starfruit over an everyday apple in the produce aisle if tropical varieties had the same quality and availability?
Tropical produce items are some of the most nutritious and healthy fruits on the market and are growing in popularity with curious and health-minded consumers. For grower-shippers, they are some of the most valuable types of produce as well, but have always suffered from severe shelf-life limitations.
Melons
Today, Hazel Technologies, Inc., a USDA-funded startup company developing new solutions to extend the shelf-life of multiple produce categories, announced they are expanding into a new production facility in the 300,000 square foot state of the art IIT Tech Park Complex in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood. The new production facility will be over five times the size of the old facility and will be used for immediate production scale up.
This expansion was necessary to meet rising demand for the proprietary FruitBrite technology from tropical grower-shippers across 10+ countries in North America. The FruitBrite sachet is a new USDAfunded technology used to extend the quality shelf-life of tropical produce like avocado (shelf life extension of up to 10 days), carambola (shelf life extension of up to 22 days), guava (shelf life extension up to 9 days), and commercial melon cultivars like honeydew (shelf life extension up to 10 days).
Avocados
Commenting on the facility expansion, Hazel CEO and Co-Founder Aidan Mouat said, “Our customers believe that FruitBrite will revolutionize the tropical produce supply chain.” he noted, “Now, growershippers can provide better quality product to their existing markets, and by extending transportation and storage life, they can grow sales by accessing new geographic markets. Retailers and consumers also win with improved fruit quality.”
Contact:
Pat Flynn
Hazel Technologies, Inc.
Tel: 312-919-1105