Over the last decade, the UK lettuce market has changed considerably. Production is now based on fewer but larger sites, and pressures to meet the demand for convenience food has grown.
Initially convenience food demand grew at 25-30 per cent a year, but this has slowed to 10-15 per cent. This growth spurt has introduced the use of various non-traditional salad leaves, in packs. Although wholehead iceberg, many varieties of romaine and butterhead still account for more than half of the fresh and processed lettuce market, salad leaf producers have had to adapt to market forces and introduce new and innovative lettuce types.
Dutch seed company, Rijk Zwaan, has developed several varieties suitable for wholehead and babyleaf processing. UK account manager Andrew Henderson explains: “We now have branded products under our Salanova name, introducing the processor and consumer to the ‘one cut, ready’ principle. UK processors have shown interest in this product and we will test during the coming months intensively.” Its most recent introductions have been iceberg lettuce resistant to mildew Bl 1-25, Nasonovia and Root Aphid, a red Oakleaf and a triple red lollo rossa - lines they hope growers and processors will adopt.
G’s Marketing supplies a number of the supermarkets with its range of own-label salads. Recently the company developed a range of prepared, ready-to-eat products under the brands Simply Salad and Simply Serve. Sales manager, prepared produce Ros Tapp says: “Over recent years, G’s has successfully entered the prepared salad market, with penetration increasing by one to three per cent. The prepared salad market is very complex at the moment with so much choice available and the ranges are constantly changing. It’s difficult to see a trend, although it is clear that the demands on people’s time continues to drive the prepared salad and snack markets.”
The group’s new product development manager Lisa Tokelove adds that over the last few years, there has been strong interest in speciality lettuces and romaine, especially for leaves that are sweeter and with more flavour. “Consumers are becoming more knowledgeable about food, more adventurous and willing to try new combinations. Instead of one lettuce type being used as the base of the salad, there is now more focus on the salad leaves themselves,” explains Tokelove. “Consumers buy prepared, bagged salads particularly in the summer, with the bigger packs and value offers up to the 99p price point selling well.”
However, recently there have been more single-ingredient salad packs allowing consumers to mix their own combinations, as 60 per cent of prepared salad buyers also still buy wholehead.
G’s brand sales and marketing manager Helen Wilson adds: “The weather always plays a key part when it comes to salad sales and supermarkets continue to dominate. The combination of strong displays within the supermarkets and good weather means that salads sell well. Our variety development trials continue to be of key importance in meeting customers’ needs, focusing on key criteria of colour, shape, texture, and most importantly flavour. We see the growth areas being Romaine lettuce and our newest range of babyleaves.”
The biggest growth area for summer salads leaves is babyleaf - a premium product retailing at a higher price and grown by specialist growers. “This sector has developed and is now stable in both area and volume,” explains Henderson and Rijk Zwaan has introduced a variety of baby leaf as the sector is always looking for something different. “We have introduced a full range of Bl 1-23 + 25 babyleaf varieties, such as Lirac (red leaf), Mauriac (red oakleaf), Kojac (lollo bionda), Millac (dark green cos), Novac (blond oak leaf) and Ubac (lollo rossa).”
Tozer Seeds has also developed its breeding work done on rockets, with the latest variety, Sky Rocket, experiencing success. Other advances include an oriental vegetable, Mustard Golden Streaks, suited to the bagged salad industry, alongside successful varieties developed such as Exbury and Bridgemere. The company plans to release further leaf types with better agronomic qualities. “Without good agronomic characteristics, the product will not make it to the shelf no matter how good it tastes,” say product development specialist Angus Duguid, as well as the important attributes of taste, colour, texture, robustness for washing lines, disease resistance, speed of growth, ease of harvest and shelf life.
Duguid agrees that the bagged salad market is now a part of everyday life and has a common shelf place in supermarkets. “The bagged salad is not a novelty anymore because of time constraints and ease of preparation. Nowadays the novelty comes from the range of new mixes within the bag and the introduction of different species to keep the consumer interest.” As a seed company, Tozer look outs for novelty in babyleaves for breeding and species development, as the bagged salad mixes evolve quickly. Duguid stresses that good culinary characteristics are important too. “We work closely with product development teams from the salad processing companies, who in turn get their instructions from the supermarkets who ask - what do you have that is different?”
Tozer has also introduced a red veined spinach for trial later this year. “Our success this year has been spinach. We will have both long and short day material and our range of DM 1-7 resistant spinach types are available for the entire UK season.”
The popularity of babyleaf spinach has meant that Rijk Zwaan has put in place breeding programmes to produce a variety with the desired qualities; a dark, vigorous, upright, round-leaved variety that is CMV resistant. “Europe is still coming to grips with babyleaf spinach as part of a fresh, mixed salad, unlike the US where demand is high because of its nutritional value and variation it provides in a mixed salad. We have developed a new type of babyleaf spinach for use in salads, and one variety, the 51-78 RZ, is currently being trialed in Spain.”
Henderson explains that a variant on fresh, mixed salads containing babyleaf spinach ideal for salads is a good solution to meet growing consumer demand. “The spinach must be oval-shaped, uniform and without any bruising, as an attractive presentation is indispensable for transparent mixed-salad bags. The new variety meets the criteria with its dark green colour and 3-D structure (semi Savoy) to give more filling to the mixes, with longer shelf-life.”
Special projects manager, for Seminis UK, Steve Parrot says that development in crops like lettuce is a constant process, with the aim of bringing new varieties with improved disease resistance, better colour and flavour. The company is also trialing this year a range of lollo rossos, oakleaves, lollo biondas and little gems, all with BL1-24 mildew resistance for the UK market. “At the same time, we are testing a range of US-bred varieties, with the aim of offering cheaper varieties for the mid-summer harvest period, when disease pressures are lowest, but where the hotter, drier weather better suits American material,” explains Parrot. He agrees that bagged salads are here to stay, and the company focuses it breeding efforts on developing new varieties with eventual bag salad use in mind.
Seminis is working on a new type of lettuce, bred primarily for food service and convenience use, that it expects will become a particular favourite in summer salads and will hopefully be commercially available next year.
When asked about the future of salad leaves, Parrot sees a declining trend in iceberg lettuce grown in the UK and expects this to continue, mirroring the US market. “However we expect that the overall cropped area of lettuce will stay the same, with increases in romaine, little gem and the coloured continental types. We find the demand for traditional versus babyleaf to be similar. Certain customers look at traditional varieties with a view to producing baby leaves,” he says.
“This is especially seen with spinach. We are a major breeder in spinach, with varieties like Falcon F1, Mig F1 and Ventus F1 making up part of most growers’ programmes. Spinach and watercress crops will also continue to increase as consumers realise the significant health benefits that both crops offer.”
A RANGE OF SPEEDS FOR BAG FLEXIBILITY
Mechanisation has been the biggest aid in outdoor lettuce production, from planting to harvesting machinery, field packing, and new packaging materials have all helped the lettuce industry to progress. Sandiacre Packaging Machinery launched its new TG250-RC form/fill/seal machine in the UK in late March, which is a departure from the company’s traditional models, offering customers in the fresh produce industry improved ease of use and cost reductions. From an engineering viewpoint, the main focus for the company has been to reduce the machine footprint, the number of parts used to simplify machine maintenance, and the running costs. Sandiacre introduced its new concepts in routine change parts to make the TG250-RC easier to use and improve machine output. From an aesthetics and ergonomic perspective, the form/fill/seal machine has better all-round accessibility that makes it safer to operate and reduces the number of routine, operational tasks.
The Nottingham-based company designed the continuous-motion vertical machine with market versatility in mind for fresh produce processors of lettuce, onions, carrots and potatoes. Sales director John Edmonstone explains: “The TG250-RC can produce standard pillow packs of 150mm long at speeds close to 160 packs per minute depending on product flow, film characteristics and pack weight, with the maximum pack width of 250mm. In addition, the reciprocating jaw motion is the heart of the TG250-RC’s design and provides features such as constant film speed, for better back and cross seals, consistent bag length, and reduced strain on the film. Both polyethylene and heat-sealable materials can be used and either hot air or rotary band back seals are in use for the vertical seal.”
Sandicare also has its traditional models; the TG350-RC model used in the fresh produce industry in applications such as lettuce packaging, while the TG450-RC is aimed at the larger volume big-bag market, with a capacity to produce pillow packs between 140 and 450mm wide at speeds up to 120/minute.
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