Andy Clarkson has heralded the projects success

Andy Clarkson has heralded the projects success

Greenvale AP has said its radical new vegetable-cleaning system, Project Cascade, could save the industry billions of litres of water.

The system, which has been on trial for three months at the company's Tern Hill site in Shropshire, has not only achieved its original targets but considerably beaten them in almost every area.

The water-saving target of just over 75 per cent has already been met. However, Greenvale's trial runs suggest savings of 85 per cent are easily achievable - the site washes 140,000 tonnes of fresh potatoes per year and the standard system used around 82 million litres of water. An 85 per cent reduction equates to a saving of almost 70m litres a year.

Running costs are also well below expectations, with Cascade slashing the cost of chilling energy by 55 per cent. Water ten times more clean is used to wash the product, resulting in a “cleaner and brighter finish”.

Because Cascade controls bacteriological levels at every stage in the washing process, it is also preventing product breakdown, while temperature control is uniform at all stages in the process.

Andy Clarkson, general manager of Greenvale at Tern Hill, said: "The results are way beyond expectations. Cascade is designed to clean potatoes but could be applied to any root vegetables. It is a truly environmental solution. Applied across the industry, it will save the UK millions of pounds and billions of litres of water, every year.

"Cascade demonstrably delivers a superior product: since its inception, we have achieved our lowest customer complaints results on record."

Greenvale plans to officially launch the Cascade System in 2010, once all trials have been completed.