Protecting produce without plastic: How one Essex County greenhouse is going more green
Topline Farms in Leamington Ont. is doing away with plastic wrapping of its English cucumbers by spraying them.
Here's a photo gallery of the process.
“It's just basically adding another skin to the cucumber,” says vice-president of sales and marketing Dino Di Laudo. “It’s a plant-based product that is completely edible and (it) has no flavour, no flavour components.”
The product is made by a company called Apeel Sciences based in Goleta, Calif.
Topline Farms has invested in equipment produce plastic-free cucumbers with a special coating designed by Apeel Sciences in Leamington, Ont., on Tuesday, July 12, 2022. (Michelle Maluske/CTV News Windsor)
According to their website, they offer “plant-derived coatings that fresh food growers, suppliers, and retailers use to keep produce fresh.”
The company, and Di Laudo, believe the coating also allows produce to stay fresh, for longer by locking the moisture inside, and keeping oxygen out.
“We’ve been challenged by customers of ours to find ways to reduce plastic, find ways to be more environmentally-friendly, find ways to be good stewards, and to bring those innovations forward,” says Di Laudo.
Topline Farms has invested in equipment produce plastic-free cucumbers with a special coating designed by Apeel Sciences in Leamington, Ont., on Tuesday, July 12, 2022. (Michelle Maluske/CTV News Windsor)
Di Laudo says the plastic-free cucumbers are being piloted for 12 weeks in a major grocery chain in the Greater Toronto Area, but he won’t divulge the name of the company.
“I'm hopeful that within two or three years that this will be the norm for cucumbers,” says Di Laudo.
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