SVZ Expands Aseptic Processing Capability in Washington State

This builds on SVZ’s aseptic capability in fruit ingredients; enabling the plant to run both low and high acid raw materials into aseptic formats.

1/10/2011 --- SVZ-USA, international producer and supplier of fruit and vegetable ingredients for the global food industry will install a new aseptic production line in 2011. This builds on SVZ’s aseptic capability in fruit ingredients; enabling the plant to run both low and high acid raw materials into aseptic formats. In addition to frozen vegetable purees and juice concentrates, the new line will launch SVZ into the aseptic vegetable ingredient market.

SVZ says it is well positioned to contract-grow large volumes of vegetables in Washington State and build on the strong grower relationships established over the past 10 years. The extensive range of aseptic fruit and vegetable ingredients offers greater reliability and continuity of supply to counter volatile crop cycles. By shifting product formulations from frozen to aseptic ingredients, food producers can reduce supply chain costs, eliminate pre-production tempering, and significantly improve microbiological food safety. Reducing costs and addressing safety issues by moving away from canned to aseptic packaging formats is another significant advantage. SVZ’s new aseptic line will be capable of running highly viscous (thick) products and managing consistency of viscosity across a processing season.

Production will commence on the new aseptic line in Q4 2011. Some of the key additions to SVZ’s aseptic product portfolio will be butternut squash, pumpkin, sweet potato, carrot, chickpea, and zucchini.

"Due to strict FDA regulations for low-acid foods and the investment required to satisfy these, there are a limited amount of supply options for customers in the aseptic vegetable market; certainly across such a wide range of fruit and vegetables that SVZ can produce.  SVZ will be one of the few companies in North America that can supply both low and high acid aseptic ingredients," said Campbell Cooper, Director - Business Development at SVZ-USA Incorporated. 
 
"The market opportunity mostly lies in the soups, savory, and bakery markets.  An example is the pumpkin pie market which uses significant volumes of Dickinson pumpkin puree, or the hummus market that uses large volume of chickpea puree.  Many companies still use canned or frozen formats, and aseptic can address the complexity and costs associated with both without reducing the quality of the end product.  Unlike these other formats, there is minimal microbiological food safety risk with aseptic formats," Cooper concluded.