1.
What is
the meaning of "Pre-prepared fruits and vegetables"?
It is meant by
"Pre-prepared fruits and vegetables" or “4th range” as the processing
of fresh vegetables and fruits, cut and packaged for consumption. The product
maintains its fresh natural properties, but with the difference that is already
washed, sliced and packaged. It has an expiration date around 7-10 days. After
this expiration date is not recommended for consumption. Vegetable are packaged
in trays or special bags, after a rigorous studies of quality and selection. It
is characterized by packing a peculiar way. Mix in the same package different
types of vegetables or select them in a practical way for convenient consumer
use.
The most
frequently used product in "4th range" are:
-Lettuce,
-Carrot.
-Spinach.
-Fruit,
-Celery
-Leek
-Orange
-Apple
There is a
growing need for processed products "4th range" in the market, in
fact the study of good packaging design has emerged. So far it has used the
traditional format of fresh produce packaging, but more specific containers
that can combine multiple items into a single bin, bag or foodtainer without
mixing flavors are demanded.
The most
commonly used packages are:
-Bags.
-Foodtainers..
-Trays.
Bags are the packaging of greater acceptance
for its low cost and presentation, because brings freshness sensation to the
product. There is an increasingly interest in small vegetables, called mini
vegetables, for its special attraction as its intense flavor. This type of
vegetables are adapted to greenhouse conditions and it is obtained the same
good qualities from them, which make them ideal as vegetables for "4th
range". Among these vegetables we have baby spinach, small celeries, baby
carrots, baby lettuces, etc ... According to domestic supply, the consumer is
familiarizing little by little, although its presence in home refrigerators is
slightly reduced.
"Fourth range" is booming but it came
to Spain from the hand of Navarre group Vega Mayor pioneer in the marketing of
these products, but needs consolidated, therefore, has taken an important step
to fifth range products, already cooked. short expiry date and marketed
refrigerated. This system "fifth range" works with fresh vegetables,
but subjecting their products to a baking process and packing without dyes,
damaged substance or preservatives, so that the expiration date is extended to
two or three months.
The primary key of "4th range" is the
quality of the raw material, second in not break the cold chain and finally
consider the expiry date of the product.
Standard facilities of "4th range"
for the development of its products comprise an area of approximately 6,500 m2
intended for reception of raw material, another area for semi-manual selection
of the product and a third zone for washing, chopping, blending and packaging
of the product. It always works with a cold chain from 1 to 4 ° C.
There are many companies that dedicate their
products to "4th range". One of them is Verdifresh, very recent company
in Spain has barely a year old. Its main product is the iceberg lettuce with
other vegetables such as carrots, salad four seasons, parsley, onion strips,
spinach. Its products are highly demanded by Mercadona. Another company in
Spain is Primaflor where their products in raw material is spread over the area
of Granada and Almeria with growing surface around 2000 ha. The most processed
products in this company are:
1-Iceberg lettuce.
2-Sprouts.
3-Cherry tomato.
4-Watermelon.
5.-Radish.
6-Asparagus.
7-Onion.
8-Garlic.
9-Celery.
Products
"fourth range" must receive a series of processes from collection in
the field to reach the consumer.
These
processes include:
a) harvesting of the raw material.
b) Selection and cleaned c)
processing.
d) Packaging trays, bags and
foodtainers.
e) Labeling.
f) Storage at low temperatures.
g) Sale and distribution.
The vegetables are harvested once it reaches
its optimum maturity or collected with the degree of maturity required by the
manufacturer. Once the vegetables are harvested, they are pre-cooled to not
lose its quality. The cleaning phase is performed with chlorinated water to
decrease microbial attack. Subsequently cut with a specialized machinery and
packaged in different containers either plastic bag or trays in modified
atmosphere with a gas mixture which consist of decreasing oxygen concentration
in the air and increase the concentration of another gas. Finally the container
is maintained at a temperature of cooling to prevent the growth of
microorganisms.
2. HARVEST OF RAW MATERIAL.
The raw material is harvested when the optimal
conditions are reached maturity. Collection and selection of the raw material
is very important to obtain an attractive and high quality product for
distribution in the market. To obtain high quality products is required to grow
more specific varieties with few controls and certain growing conditions.
The collection can be mechanical or manual. In
both cases, care must be taken to not to damage the product during the process.
When the collection is mechanical, varieties
planted must be resistant to this type of gathering that brings major injury
problems of the fruit or vegetable with rupture of the surface and therefore,
incorporation of foreign objects such as stones, remains of other plants, etc.
Another problem is that mechanical harvesting is collected without selecting the
type of maturity of the product, so many of them are not suitable for
processing in "4th range".
3. SELECTION AND CLEANED.
The handling of the product must be done in a
careful manner to avoid possible damage and once made the collection, another
point to consider is transportation, which must be done quickly in order to
avoid becoming contaminated. For the cleaning process perfect condition and
hygiene of the utensils as well as the condition of cleaned machinery is
required.
In selecting the products are deposited in
cylindrical tapes they move and rotate, so they separate from each other
depending on the size of each one through grooves of different sizes on which
they fall.
Product dirty such with ground, moulds,
bacteria... are removed by the washing process. Products such as lettuce and
spinach require special designs for washing. For vegetables like carrots, leek,
etc washing is carried out by rotating cylindrical tunnel formed by metal
plates or mesh.
Washing and disinfecting products "4th
range" is performed with cold water at a temperature of 3-4 ° C. It is
recommended to use about 8-10 liters of water per kg of product processed. The
water used should be checked periodically to know if it is suitable or not,
therefore, plants water facilities are reviewed for possible deterioration. For
disinfection sodium hypochlorite is used at a concentration of 100 to 150 ppm.
During the drying process product "4th
range", produced excess moisture is removed by washing to avoid the
appearance of microorganisms that usually appear when the products have not
undergone proper drying. If we subject the product to a drying too quickly you
could also damage the material to be dried, so it must be done in a controlled
manner.
4. PROCESSING.
The cut of the
product to fourth range is very important, often performed in various ways
depending on the product. It is usually cut in cubes, slices, segments, strips,
etc. The cut should be done quickly and in one fell swoop and avoiding the hit
of the material as it would cause product damage and left with a bad
presentation. The fourth range cutting machine is capable of cutting a figure
of 12 tons per hour with good precision cutting, so it is capable of high
technology.
5. PACKAGING PRODUCTS
"FOURTH GRADE".
The sale of these products
"convenience" is necessarily done in containers such as bags, trays
covered with plastic film and tubs. It is packaged in modified atmosphere with
gas mixture decreases the concentration of oxygen in the air and increasing the
concentration of another gas. The modified atmosphere packaging of fresh and
minimally processed (EAM) provides sufficient concentration of O and CO in the
container in order to be progressively reduced respiration rate products
without actually induce damages. Subsequently the packaging temperature is
decreased to increase the life of fresh processed product.
6. LABELLING.
The labeling is printed in bags, in containers
or rigid plastic trays. The label announced that the product should be kept
cold, label also incorporates therein a small reading reports about the ingredients
making up the package.
7. STORAGE AT LOW
TEMPERATURES.
The cooling products "4th range" is
based on the use of controlled atmosphere that regulates environmental
conditions, adapting to the temperature required in each product. Usually a
refrigeration temperature of 2 to 5 ° C is required. Refrigeration is a
technology allowing us to achieve optimum temperature to prolong the lifetime
of a product. During storage at low temperatures of products "4th
range", the temperature is reduced to decrease the enzyme activity and
microbial growth.
8. DISTRIBUTION AND SALE.
The growth of these companies is increasingly
noticeable so many of them require the expand facilities and incorporate machinery
with latest technologies. To do this, increase the cold surface to keep
products, and innovate their cutting machinery equipment with high capacity and
speed in order to reach several tons in the shortest time possible, as well as
the four joint teams packaging, weighing and labeling.
The transport of products "4th range"
has an important role, since it allows quickly their distribution throughout
the Spanish geography, and other foreign countries like UK, France (importers).
The distribution requires greater product freshness demand of consumers are
willing to pay a price for a good quality.
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