The care and preparation needed to ensure produce makes it to the shelf in the best, most appealing condition requires an intricate partnership between farmer and retailer. And nowhere is this more apparent than in the berry industry. Well•Pict Berries products are fussed over from the very beginning, so every link in the important chain that begins with a blossom and ends with a bowl of berries on the kitchen table is strategically accounted for, planned, and executed. In other words, when it comes to getting consumers superior “Flavor First” berries, Well•Pict is not messing around.
That’s why we rely on you to serve as one of these very important links between field and shelf. This link is a component of one of the industry’s best-kept secrets: the cold chain. Maintaining the cold chain means the difference between a crisp, perfect (and perfectly ripe) gem of a berry and one that has begun to break down--making it a target for bruising and quickly ticking down the period of freshness. Well•Pict berries are kept at a perfect thirty-three degrees from storage to store. In the peak heat of summer, even a one-hour break from this strategic and researched temperature can decrease the amount of time berries will last in the store by up to a full day. So, if you’re running a promotion and expect to move clamshell upon clamshell upon clamshell, front-and-center displays can work. Ideally, however, both strawberries and raspberries will be kept in a refrigerated display case in the produce section.
To learn more about the cold chain as well as a host of other practical and engaging topics, watch a few of the brief (we’re talking under five minutes) videos at the Well•Pict Berry Academy. It’s a fun, light-hearted program from which you will be proud to “graduate.”
