Improving shelf life has been singled out as one of the biggest growth opportunities in the fresh convenience sector.

Enza Zaden manager of biotechnology Jeroen Rouppe told the Freshconex Business Forum that the extension of shelf life was vital to the sector in the long term.

He said: “What is shelf life? For consumers, it’s keeping high quality product with a great taste. However, fresh-cut produce is made of living plant tissue, so you can get discoloration, moisture loss, microbial disease and a lower nutritional content.”

He revealed that Enza Zaden has developed a methodology to test the shelf life of lettuce and picked out Borja cucumbers and Sweetgreen peppers as two examples of varieties that already enjoy an extended shelf life.

Enza Zaden marketing project manager Chris Groot compared seed breeding companies to Apple Inc “because they give us a way of life”, but called on the industry to give breeders more input.

He said: “One seed tomato can create eight 5kg boxes of tomatoes, so there is a lot of power in that one seed…

“When we breed something we make sure it is suitable for the industry and we try to realise varieties that are commercially viable.”

Enza Zaden breeds 32 crops in total, including lettuce, salads, peppers and cucumbers.

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