Bedfordshire-based Parripak Foods has had a busy winter, churning through around 1,000 tonnes of finished vegetables a week.
In one week, the UK’s leading fresh vegetable preparation specialist reported a throughput of 251t of finished onions alone, which, based on eight whole onions per finished kg, equates to more than two million onions.
Parripak’s marketing manager Dom Pleasance said: “This has been a busy winter we are expecting an extremely busy January with some exciting new launches and healthy eating based promotions, which have had a great deal of development work put behind them.
“Onions, for instance, contain Quercetin, a powerful compound which is recognised as being a more potent antioxidant than Vitamin E, and experts believe that two to three onions a week can have a positive impact on health.
“There has also been an increase in demand from the ready meals market and particularly in the soup sector. Volumes are such that we have had to put on a twilight shift to service the orders,” he said.
Parripak, which since 2006 has been part of the William Jacksons Food group, has also invested in specialised storage facilities at its 62,000 sq ft purpose built factory, to cover the whole year.
