5 Factors to Consider When Choosing Cold Chain Programs
November 30, 2020
The Science Behind Ready to Eat Foods: Why They’re Great for Business
December 28, 2020
As a business owner, you’re probably looking for ways to improve the foods you serve, whether you’re feeding patients, students, or guests at a restaurant. How can you make cost-effective choices that don’t sacrifice the quality of your food?
For years, scientific studies have refuted the myth that frozen fruits and vegetables aren’t as healthy as fresh alternatives. The highest quality frozen options are individually quick frozen, a process that keeps fruits and vegetables perfectly preserved.
At SunLeaf, we provide our clients with a large variety of IQF fruits and vegetables and guarantee nutrition and incredible flavors in every bite!
Read on to learn the top seven benefits of incorporating IQF fruits and vegetables into your business’s menu.
1. Full Nutrition Preservation
The most significant benefit of the IQF process is that it preserves the nutrition of freshly picked fruits and vegetables. As soon as fruits, vegetables, and herbs hit their peak growing period, we pick them, clean them, and freeze them.
What does that mean when you take them out of the freezer and start incorporating them into your food? Thawed IQF fruits and vegetables, whether you cook them or serve them up whole and raw, are just as fresh and nutrient-rich as they were when they were first picked.
2. Buying in Bulk and Saving Money
Buying in bulk is one of the easiest ways for businesses to reduce their spending. When you buy in bulk, the price per unit tends to go down, which means that you may be paying more in the present, but you’re saving over time.
When you look at the disadvantages of buying things in bulk, one of the number one issues is that you can’t buy perishables in bulk. Chances are, a fair amount of your stock will go bad before you get the opportunity to use it.
With IQF fruits and vegetables, you can solve that problem! With a shelf life of six months or more, you can feel confident about buying your produce in bulk.
3. Seasons Won’t Disrupt Your Produce Options
Business owners in the food industry know that buying produce out of season isn’t always a great idea. You may find that the product you’re buying out of season comes from another region, meaning that it had to travel a long way before it gets to you. That means that what you end up with isn’t as fresh and doesn’t pack the same nutrition and flavor.
With IQF fruits and vegetables, you don’t have to take certain fruits and vegetables off the menu when they’re no longer in season. We locally source our produce all year round, and the IQF process allows us to keep those products in stock even when the seasons change.
4. More Menu Options
With a wider variety of more affordable products, you can expand your menu like never before. Not only does this attract customers and clients who are looking for new and exciting foods to try. It also ensures that you’re offering up a wide variety of healthy options, something that is especially important when you’re serving patients and students who rely on you for most of their meals!
5. Minimal Packaging Waste
When you buy your produce fresh, you may find that certain varieties come in smaller portions with tons of protective packaging. This is typically done to protect the integrity of the produce, especially when you’re dealing with more delicate options like berries.
IQF fruits and vegetables are much sturdier while frozen, which means we can sell larger portions with smaller amounts of packaging. This is a great way to reduce your waste as a business, which many customers value when choosing where to spend their money.
6. No Health Risks
When you open a package of SunLeaf fruits or vegetables, you know that they’re washed and ready to eat. This cuts down the risk of customers or clients being served poorly cleaned foods that are still contaminated with fertilizers, pesticides, and other harmful toxins.
Plus, while eating expired produce doesn’t pose the kind of health risks that eating expired meat or dairy does, it’s still not the safest thing to do. Mold and bacteria can cause a range of issues and the loss of nutritional value that results from spoiled produce. With IQF fruits and vegetables, you don’t have to worry that what you’re serving went out of date.
7. IQF Fruits and Vegetables Don’t Lead to Food Degradation
One of the biggest reasons people shied away from frozen food for so long is that it often led to food degradation. Those massive ice crystals you’d find were causing damage to the fibers of the frozen food. When you thawed them out, you’d end up with a limp, unappealing mess.
The IQF process does not lead to food degradation. Individually frozen produce leads to significantly smaller ice crystals, and you don’t end up with that same kind of damage to your food. Once you thaw out IQF foods, you’d never suspect that they were once frozen!
Work With SunLeaf for All Your Produce Needs
Gone are the days of thinking that frozen produce is inferior to fresh. IQF fruits and vegetables are packed with nutrition and flavor that genuinely can’t be beaten. Plus, that’s only one of the seven significant benefits of buying IQF foods for your business!
At SunLeaf, we want to be more than just a supplier. We partner with businesses big and small to provide high-quality products and offer our cold chain services.
To find out more about our business practices, products, and services, contact us today. We can’t wait to help you grow your business with IQF fruits, vegetables, and more!
