Hazel Technologies, a USDA-funded company providing new technologies to extend the quality shelf life of produce and fight food waste is making an impact for growers, packers, and shippers in the apple industry this season, providing shelf-life extension from packhouse to store shelf. Hazel’s flagship product, Hazel 100, takes an innovative approach to a technology the apple industry has used for the last 20 years and companies across the apple supply chain are taking notice.
Companies using Hazel Tech’s USDA-funded postharvest product line for apples include: Rice Fruit Company based in Gardners, PA, the largest apple packing facility in the eastern half of the United States, BelleHarvest, based in Belding, MI, one of the largest storage facilities in the eastern United States, and River Valley Fruit, based in Grandview, Washington, a grower and packer of apples, cherries, pears, and stone fruit.
The North American apple harvesting season is roughly five months long from July to November, with its peak in September and October. Grower-packers across the US are planning to continue successfully utilizing Hazel’s suite of products with both core varieties as well as proprietary varieties. Products in Hazel’s suite of technologies for apples include Hazel 100, Hazel CA for long term storage, Hazel O for organics, Hazel Datica for storage monitoring, and Hazel Trex for quality verification, all designed to help extend the shelf life and monitor the quality of their apples while in storage.
“In a typical year we might ship 2 million boxes of apples, ranging from the core varieties like Honeycrisp to proprietary varieties, like Kiku and Lemonade apples,” commented Leighton Rice, Quality Control Manager at Rice Fruit Company, “with each variety comes different challenges. We have found that Hazel’s range of technologies can help to keep the fruit fresh and attractive which is why we’ve added Hazel 100 to our process this year, alongside Hazel CA and Datica.”
“At BelleHarvest, we pride ourselves in embracing innovations to provide the highest quality of produce for our customers,” commented Milt Fuehrer, CEO of BelleHarvest Sales, “over the last two years of working with Hazel, we’ve seen that same dedication to innovation through the constant improvements being made to Hazel CA and its companion technology, Hazel Datica. We’ve been thoroughly impressed with our qc and pack-out results.”
“We feel even more confident in our storage strategies knowing that we have Hazel Tech on our team,” commented Gene Gifford, General Manager of River Valley Fruit, “we’ve used Hazel products successfully and have seen better packouts, better arrivals, and found it extremely user friendly. We cannot wait to continue our partnership using Hazel’s products for apples this season.”
