Tray again

Landec, a developer and marketer of technology-based polymer products for food applications, launched the latest product offerings of its food subsidiary Apio at the recent US Produce Marketing Association (PMA)'s fresh summit convention. The company featured products under its existing Eat Smart brand and the newly added Dole brand.

The newest Eat Smart brand product offerings include four microwave-able side dishes with sauces and a new mini vegetable party tray created to broaden its existing line of market leading retail party trays. The Dole brand products, which are produced and marketed by Apio, debuted at the convention and consist of a complete line of specialty packaged Dole brand fresh-cut vegetable products and party trays.

The new Eat Smart microwave-able fresh vegetable side dish line consists of broccoli with cheese sauce, vegetable medley with southwestern herb sauce, broccoli and carrots with roasted red pepper gorgonzola sauce and carrots with butter ginger sauce. The sides are packaged in a microwave-able tray, which contain multiple servings and are ready to eat in three minutes.

In addition, Apio unveiled a new 19-ounce mini vegetable tray, its latest addition to the existing party tray line. The innovative compact design provides added benefit to retailers by reducing the shelf space required for merchandising and providing an attractive lower priced vegetable tray.

At the PMA show Apio​ displayed the new Dole brand fresh-cut vegetable and party-tray line for the first time since entering into an exclusive multi-year licensing agreement with Dole Fresh Vegetables in June. The produce display featured 12-ounce and 2-pound Dole brand fresh-cut vegetable products as well as five Dole brand vegetable party trays ranging in size from 19-ounces to 2.5-pounds.

Both the Eat Smart brand and the newly added Dole brand lines of packaged fresh-cut vegetables and party trays feature Apio's proprietary Intelimer packaging technology, which the company claims extends shelf life, reduces product shrink and compensates for temperature fluctuations throughout the distribution chain.

According to market analyst AC Nielson​, Apio continues to be the number one supplier of vegetable party trays to retail stores in the United States, capturing over 29 per cent of the total vegetable party tray market. This was based on sales reported for retail grocery stores with average annual revenues over $2 million during the three months ended September 2003, a 6 percentage point gain in market share from the prior quarter.

Landec​ designs, develops, manufactures and sells temperature-activated and other specialty polymer products for a variety of food, agricultural and licensed partner applications. The Company's temperature activated polymer products are based on its proprietary Intelimer polymers which differ from other polymers in that they can be customized to abruptly change their physical characteristics when heated or cooled through a pre-set temperature switch.