Agricoat promoted its NatureSeal formulations at the Food and Drink expo show for the third time.

The company initially launched its products in the UK at the Expo with great success, picking up a lot of its customer base. " We had the right product at the right time," said Simon Matthews, product development manager.

"At the show we have access to supermarkets, processors and consumers so we can inform the market about new tailor-made formulations. As a company, we are able to work closely with customers - we want to let them know that the basic NatureSeal formulation is a platform that they can spring off to develop a product for their own needs," explained Matthews.

New NatureSeal formulations are under development both in the UK and US, and Agricoat will custom-formulate the NatureSeal recipes to suit different fresh produce. The NatureSeal product extends the shelf life of fruit and vegetables by replacing the sulphites in fruit. The technology was initially developed in the US in 1997 and introduced to the UK at the Expo in 2000. The formulations are well established here with successful formulations for apples, pears and carrots.

The latest developments now extend to exotic fruits. The newest UK-developed formulation is for the white grape variety which stops the discolouration of the grape once it has been removed from the stem. This allows chilled-fruit manufacturers to use white grapes as the unsightly browning is removed. Customer service manager Ross Nicholson said: "The formulation evolved through customer demand wanting to use white grapes in fresh cut products to increase consumer choice".

The UK operations service local client demands such as shelf life, micro-standards that differ to the US so new formulas and products are developed in the UK. One example is carrot blushing which is specific to the UK market, preventing the whitening on carrots. Another difference between the UK and US is the required shelf-life of stone-fruit - in the UK it is 5-6 days while the US demands a shelf-life of 10-11 days before the fruit is considered to be a viable product.

US laboratories are currently looking at formulations for avocado which will eventually be brought into the UK. Nicholson explained: "Having the different labs means that each country can satisfy their own customer needs as well as profit from each others developments. This has happened with apples where the product was developed in the US and now large scale production has been transferred and introduced to the UK.”

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