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April 2011

April 2011

Florida Specialties: Growth in private label leads to new processing plant.

Business Incubators: Rutgers Food Innovation Center is a new model for product development and entrepeneurship.

Shaking the Foundation of Packaging: Consumer trends change the way producers think about package design.

Tomato Turmoil: Freezes in Florida redcue supply, drive prices up.

Improving Tomatoes: Using genetics to build a better tomato.

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Featured Article

Florida Specialties

Florida Specialties has seen tremendous growth through Blue Ribbon, a private label created to market its packaged, value-added green beans. Released in early 2010, the label has performed well enough for the company to open a new processing and packing facility in Immokalee, Fla., with plans for further expansion in the next few years as new customers purchase the products as fast as they roll off the line. The new facility is the second wave of an expansion that began in early 2010 to accommodate green beans processed under the Blue Ribbon name. "Since we finished the first phase a year ago, we needed to expand further. With the new addition, we were able to triple our production to about 45 million pounds," said Myles Strohl, Florida Specialties owner, who has played an integral role in moving the company in new directions since he acquired it in 2009. Food safety and consumer convenience became the inspirations behind the beans. The packaging helps in protecting the green beans from contamination, whether from consumers who handle bulk beans with unclean hands, or contamination from dirty floors. It also aids retail markets in limiting shrinkage in the produce…  » Read more

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Florida Specialties

Florida Specialties has seen tremendous growth through Blue Ribbon, a private label created to market its packaged, value-added green beans. Released in early 2010, the label has performed well enough for the company to open a new processing and packing facility in Immokalee, Fla., with plans for further expansion in the next few years as new customers purchase the products as fast as they roll off the line. The new facility is the second wave of an expansion that began in early 2010 to accommodate green beans processed under the Blue Ribbon name. "Since we finished the first phase a year ago, we needed to expand further. With the new addition, we were able to triple our production to about 45 million pounds," said Myles Strohl, Florida Specialties owner, who has played an integral role in moving the company in new directions since he acquired…  » Read more

Rutgers Food Innovation Center

With local, state and federal budgets under scrutiny, funding for university programs is increasingly at risk. But New Jersey's Rutgers University has found an innovative solution that encourages education and new business development in the value-added food industry. The Rutgers Food Innovation Center was founded in 2000 as a food business incubator - a program to help startup food businesses get up and running. Incubators are commonly used in technology sectors, which typically require large capital investments, but the Food Innovation Center is a service-centric model that focuses on mentoring existing businesses and encouraging new product and business development, said Margaret Brennan, executive director of the center. There are three key areas that the 11 full-time staff members - two in food safety and quality assurance, one in charge of product development, three in operations and engineering, two that handle client services and three in…  » Read more

Shaking the Foundation of Packaging

Fresh-cut produce items are increasingly fighting for space on retail shelf space, but brand owners can take advantage of changing consumer trends to better market their products. "When you talk about design, a lot of people think about aesthetics, but it's more than that," said Harry Epstein, vice president of innovations at HAVI Global Solutions. The design of a package has to not only meet the market needs - supply chain or distribution specifications - but also meet the needs of consumers in the increasingly global marketplace, Epstein told attendees at the Packaging Strategies Design Conference, March 2-3 in St. Petersburg, Fla. Retail consumers have myriad choices, even for value-added products. But designing packaging that communicates the attributes of the product to consumers can encourage first-time use of a product and drive brand loyalty. Epstein identified six trends in packaging design that producers should shoot…  » Read more
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