Ready-to-eat avocadoes and mangoes packed in a Smart Packaging Solutions sustainable tray

Better shelf life, better taste and a lower environmental impact. With the introduction of pre-ripened avocadoes and mangoes, the fresh produce supplier Staay Food Group introduces a new range to the ready-to-eat-fruit market. A top-quality product deserves high-quality packaging. So the mangoes and avocadoes are packed on a sustainable solid cardboard tray supplied by Smart Packaging Solutions.

Staay Food Group is an independent fresh fruit and vegetables cultivation, sales and marketing organisation with a head office in Papendrecht (the Netherlands). “With our international family firm, we serve customers in retail, wholesale, trade, food services and the processing industry in more than thirty countries”, says senior executive Wim van der Staay, “We are involved throughout the chain, from seeds to final product. Own cultivation of fruit and vegetables is what distinguishes Staay from many other fresh produce suppliers. We grow our own products or have them cultivated exclusively for us, and what we do not grow, we buy direct.”

Staay Food Group has recently introduced a new brand for ready-to-eat fruit under the name Eat & Care. The first products within this range are mangoes and avocadoes. For the supply of these products, Staay Food Group works with Special Fruit from Belgium, worldwide importer and producer of fruit and vegetables and specialised in ripening fruit for ready-to-eat products.

At Special Fruit, mangoes and avocadoes are ripened in airtight cells employing a new ‘soft-ripening method’. With AI-software technology, controlling the individual ripening processes. This allows each party of fruit to ripen in a more natural homogenous way. This ensures an improved perception of freshness compared to conventionally ripened fruit. The shelf life is better too, through which loss and food wastage is limited even more. To top it all, because the ripening process is faster and is monitored as it proceeds, energy is saved too.

Sustainably cultivated products deserve sustainable packaging. Ready-to-eat mangoes and avocadoes are packed in Smart Packaging Solutions trays. Smart Packaging Solutions supplies the packaging ready to use, including printing. “Solid cardboard packaging offers a number of benefits”, says André Lamers from Staay Food Group. “Such a solid and robust packaging is a must to ensure that the mangoes and avocadoes arrive unbruised with the consumer. Before the mangoes and avocadoes get from the producer to the consumer, they are handled three times. Solid cardboard packaging is very robust and stacks securely.”

“Another benefit is that solid cardboard packaging is very sustainable”, continues André Lamers. The tray is fabricated from recycled material and can be recycled after use. “At the end of its life, every part of the packaging is 100% naturally compostable”, explains Johan De Neef, Managing Director of Smart Packaging Solutions. “The carbon footprint from logistics doesn’t get much more sustainable than this. The packaging is manufactured and erected in our plant in Meer and then it is delivered to Special Fruit, where the ripened mangoes and avocadoes are packaged.”

The packaging for the ready-to-eat mangoes and avocadoes is a new chapter in the partnership between Staay Food Group and Smart Packaging Solutions. Johan De Neef: “Since way back, we have supplied solid cardboard base and lid packaging to Staay Food Group. There are many similarities between Staay Food Group and Smart Packaging Solutions. We are both family-owned companies, with short lines of communication, who only want the best for our customers. The packaging for the ready-to-eat fruit is a great example of this. We supply ready-to-use packaging, erected and including printing, which can be used immediately to package a high-quality product.”