Baby Leaf salad production yesterday and today: the importance of Agriculture 4.0

One of the pillars of our philosophy is continuous improvement, which is why we invest in agricultural machinery and equipment aimed at planning and optimising work both on the field and in production, to supply our customers baby leaf salads that meet the required standards and respect the land and good farming practices.

Thanks to the technological innovations and principles of Agriculture 4.0 at OP Isola Verde we have introduced a series of digital tools and technical planning processes that support and improve our day-to-day activities, while maintaining the exceptionally high quality of our Baby Leaf salads. Here are just a few of the things that have helped us make a difference on the European Range 1 Baby Leaf Salad producers scenario.

The growth of baby leaf salads depends on many factors: the soil, the humidity rates, the season and, naturally, the weather. The latter is a variable that is exceedingly worrying for farms because it is one that can significantly affect production rates.

We have installed weather monitoring units in the OP Isola Verde greenhouses that allow us to verify the environmental climatic parameters of the greenhouse and the soil, and to safeguard the growth of the baby leaf salad, from sowing through to the harvesting phase.

This improves the field work, but also impacts the entire supply chain, from controls during production to packaging and deliveries, guaranteeing our customers a more punctual and precise service.

Once the Baby Leaf salads have been harvested, they are visually sorted by in-house personnel.

In addition, all packaged products are tested using metal detectors to discard packages containing metallic contaminants.

Our Lamb’s lettuce, the only Baby Leaf salad that undergoes a pre-washing process, and rocket are also checked by optical sorting machines that are able to discard any quality defects and foreign bodies to guarantee a product that conforms to our quality requirements.

Our first range Baby Leaf salads are packed in bags or trays and handled by automatic lines equipped with metal detectors and in-line weighing scales that verify the metrological conformity of the product. Moreover, the integrity of each individual package is checked by our personnel to ensure that the customer receives a safe product in compliance with our quality standards.