How logistics affects the quality of baby leaf salads
The quality of our baby leaf salads can be seen when they are still in the ground, but also in the activities that follow the harvest phase. Find out what we do to deliver an efficient logistics process.
To deliver quality baby leaf salads to the market, it is not sufficient to carefully select the varieties and grow them with care and passion.
After the harvest phase, the logistical organisation of each individual producer can affect the quality of the final product, this is why at OP Isola Verde we have designed and implemented a fast and efficient process.
This is what we do every day to preserve the quality of our baby lettuce, rocket, lamb’s lettuce and all the other baby leaf salads that we grow in our greenhouses.
Rapid harvesting
As soon as the baby leaf salads are harvested from the field, they are instantly delivered to our Telgate and Eboli plant facilities where they are verified by our quality department.
In this phase we check the health and hygiene of the leaves, we prewash the lamb’s lettuce, we dry the leaves using a dewatering method and we prepare the pallets according to the requests of our customers.
Speed is key during this phase to make sure the baby leaf salads do not remain in our warehouses for any length of time, but despite the fact that we process every phase swiftly, our team is always careful to preserve the quality of the leaves and not ruin them when passing from one phase to another.
Temperature
We respect the cold chain requirements in our production facilities and maintain a temperature that is appropriate for the optimal storage of baby-leaf salads.
Sudden temperature changes, in fact, ruin the leaves and decrease their shelf-life, whilst a constant temperature of about 4 degrees Celsius allows them to preserve their freshness for longer.
Appropriate packaging
We use certified food grade trays and film throughout the packaging phases.
Moreover, we also package baby leaf salads using automatic machines to minimise manual handling and prevent any damage to the leaves between one phase and another.
Dedicated truck transportation
Our baby leaf salads reach customers throughout Europe exploiting an efficient logistics system, using forwarders specialised in the transportation of food.
All the trucks we use to ship our baby leaf salads are refrigerated, comply with the cold chain requirements, and allow us to deliver them to their destination as quickly as possible, sometimes in less than 48 hours
Procurement Manager
My goal is to optimise our agricultural production.
Every day I work to improve the business management system and engage the supplier members in the philosophy of continuous improvement.
I support the individual OP Isola Verde enterprises so they make the best use of their production capacities and guarantee quality baby leaf salads to our customers, time and time again.
