Making a Difference: Protecting the Cold Chain
Strawberries are one of the fruit world’s most perishable items, but we at Well•Pict are dedicated to getting these delicate gems to retailers all over the world with that scrumptious “fresh off the vine” burst of flavor we’re famous for. One of the most important steps in delivering the best berries is upholding the cold chain process.
Our berries are handpicked, packed, and shipped out in less than 4 hours. We take special care to guard them from the elements because even the warm air and sunshine can speed up the dehydration process. Since time and temperature are of utmost importance, our berries are picked and transported to our refrigerated facility quickly; this is where the cold chain process begins.
Once Well•Pict Berries make it to our cooling facility, they are kept at 33° until they reach the markets both domestic and worldwide, including the duration of the shipping process. 33° is the key to delivering fresh berries. For every hour that berries sit at room temperature, they lose one day of freshness. To make sure that doesn’t happen, we pack temperature probes into select pallets to insure quality control. When Well•Pict Berries arrive at your store, they will have been kept at 33° since they left the field. How you handle them once delivered is equally as important as our delivery process!
Once your Well•Pict Berries arrive they should go directly into your refrigerated storage. Moving the berries from the cold chain to room temperature breaks them down quickly, stealing moments of freshness from consumers. If the cold chainis kept up properly, your customers should have 5 days of ripe berries to eat once they get them home.
We always recommend keeping the berries in a refrigerated area of the produce section, but if you’ve ordered an abundance and can’t refrigerate them all, treat your customer’s taste buds AND wallets with a good promo to clear those berries off the shelves before they lose their punch. Consumers love seeing a great deal so “Buy 2 Get 1 Free” will move those berries from an eye-catching center display to their baskets. Keep an eye on those unrefrigerated displays and pick out any clamshells with weathered-looking berries, because it only takes one spoiled-looking strawberry to send the consumer on their way.
To learn more about berry care and our Well•Pict procedures, we invite you to enroll in our virtual Well•Pict Berry Academy! Majoring in fresh flavors since 1969!