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Produce Show Daily 5 7 Sunday, October 16, 2016 Miami, Florida, Farm Fresh Flowers is now expanding its reach into consumer markets. Farm Fresh Flowers places the utmost importance on providing cus- tomers with the highest quality product and reliable service. It accomplishes this by cutting out the middle man and grow- ing flowers on its expansive 100-plus acre farm in Colombia. It is located 8,500 feet above sea level with incredibly rich local soil, providing ideal environmental conditions for growing flowers. Though Farm Fresh Flowers has years of farming experience and expert- ise, it continually utilizes new technology and farming techniques to refine and con- trol the quality of each stem from culti- Farm Fresh Flowers (Cont'd. from p. 1) vation to delivery. Once harvested, its dedicated team ensures that all of its flowers are individually inspected and promptly dispatched for optimum fresh- ness while meeting all of its client's spec- ifications. Product offerings include bouquets, consumer bunches and grower bunches, along with fresh and tropical cut flowers. Farm Fresh Flowers is also committed to innovation, which gives it the opportuni- ty to introduce new products into the market to offer customers the perfect complement to any floral program. Visit Farm Fresh Flowers at booth #4084. For more information, call 305.594.1038, go to www.farm-fresh- flowers.com or email rosy@farm-fresh- flowers.com. builds powered stem cutters for the floral industry. Traditionally, flower stems have been cut by hand with knives, shears or guillotines – all of which are dangerous and slow. Our StemPro cutters do this same job effortlessly, improving produc- tivity, reducing labor costs and eliminat- ing injuries. Flowers cut with StemPro cutters also last longer due to a better quality of cut. PSD: Why does the quality of cut on a flower stem matter? PH: Once flowers are harvested at the farms, they must be properly packed and kept cool during transport from the farm to the retailer. When they get to the retail- er, they need to be recut as the stems ends will have closed during shipping. In order for the flowers to hydrate, the stem ends must be reopened with a fresh cut and then put into water. The quality of this recut matters. StemPro cutters pro- duce a sharp, clean cut, which allows flowers to hydrate better and therefore last longer. PSD: Are you introducing anything new at the show this year? PH: Yes. We have found that as StemPro cutters gain wider acceptance and use among large national retailers, some stores that have very successful floral operations, selling high volume, needed a StemPro cutter with a larger air supply to cut higher volumes of StemPro (Cont'd. from p. 1) flowers. The new StemPro 160, which we are introducing at the show, address- es this need. PSD: Does StemPro Systems sell any- thing other than stem cutters? PH: StemPro has recently introduced a new floral merchandising fixture, the StemPro 460 that has a StemPro cutter built in. It's designed for retailers who want to sell flowers, but don't have the space to create a complete floral depart- ment. With the StemPro 460, one mobile fixture offers everything they need to sell flowers in almost any venue – a coffee shop, a convenience store, a drug store or any other venue where they have a limit- ed amount of space and want to sell flow- ers. PSD: It seems like StemPro cutters are a considerable investment, a lot more than the hand tools they replace. PH: They are a substantial investment, but retailers know that the cost of a piece of equipment is much less important that the return on investment (ROI). Experience with several large retailers has shown that StemPro cutters pay for themselves in eight to 10 months by cutting processing time in half, eliminating injuries and mak- ing their floral product last longer. As more large retail chains realize the potential sav- ings that StemPro cutters offer, we see our growth continuing. For more information, visit booth #3990, call 855.860.7836, email info@ stempro.com or go to www.stempro.com. THE SKINNY ON PALM OIL An interview with Haznita Husin with the Malaysian Palm Oil Council. PSD: What is palm oil? HH: Palm oil is obtained from the flesh or mesocarp of the palm oil fruit. Like olive oil, palm oil is fruit oil. Palm oil should not be mistaken for palm kernel oil, which is extracted from the kernel or seed of the palm fruit. Therefore, the oil palm fruit is unique. From the fruit, two distinct types of oils are produced: palm oil and palm kernel oil. Both are edible oils, but with very different chemical composition, physical properties and applications. Each palm fruit produces about 90 percent palm oil and 10 percent palm kernel oil. Palm oil has a balanced composition of both saturated and unsaturated fatty acids. Coupled with nature's gift of high vitamin E content, the oil is naturally very stable. Palm oil contains an equal propor- tion of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids. It's particularly rich in the saturat- ed palmitic acid (44 percent), with sub- stantial amounts of the monounsaturated oleic acid (40 percent) and smaller amounts of polyunsaturated fatty acids (10 percent). Palm oil has had a history of food use for more than 5,000 years in more than 130 countries worldwide. PSD: What food products contain palm oil? HH: Palm oil's semi-solid properties make it a favorite ingredient among the food processors. From palm oil you can have unlimited oil fractions for use of any kind of food applications. The oil could be incorporated into a wide variety of food products, which include cooking oils, mar- garines, noodles, shortenings, vegetable ghee, bakery products, chocolates, hot beverages, coffee creamers and ice cream. Due to its excellent stability, it is the No. 1 choice in the world as frying oil for foods such as instant noodles, French fries, potato crisps, doughnuts and fried meats and snacks. The natural solid nature of palm stearin make it most ideal for formulating solid fats such as vanaspati, margarine, shortenings and other bakery fats. More importantly, these palm fats are not hydrogenated and therefore are trans- fatty acids free. PSD: Is palm oil a trans fat? Will palm oil consumption raise my blood choles- terol level? HH: No. Palm oil's natural semi-solid properties and the versatility of blending with its solid fraction, palm stearin, make hydrogenation of palm oil unnecessary. Therefore, food products containing palm oil as its sole or main ingredient are essentially trans-free. A re-examination of the data of some early published western studies that included palm oil showed that when palm oil replace the habitual fats of Western diets, blood cholesterol levels in the sub- jects did not go up, but instead were reduced from seven percent to 38 percent. PSD: What's so special about red palm oil? HH: Red palm oil (RPO) is the only commercially available oil that contains substantial amounts of the natural plant pigments called 'carotenoids' (about 550 µg/g), as well as vitamin E (600 µg/g) comprising both tocotrienols (65 per- cents) and alpha-tocopherol (35 percent). Some of the carotenoids in RPO are converted to vitamins A in our body; the rest of the carotenoids, together with vitamin E (particularly tocotrienols), are reported to play a vital role in advanced nutrition-boosting the immune system, scavenging damaging reactive oxygen species in our body and are involved in complex mechanisms which have evolved to protect the body from chronic diseases such as heart disease and can- cers of the breast and skin. For more information, visit mpoc.org.my. GROWING INTEREST IN AMERICAN WISCONSIN GINSENG American Wisconsin ginseng has long been revered by traditional health practi- tioners as beneficial in many ways and recent scientific studies are bearing out ancient beliefs. Ron Krautkramer, President of the Ginseng Board of Wisconsin, explains that there are two types of ginseng: American (95 percent of which is grown in Wisconsin) and Asian. Traditional Chinese medicine holds that American Wisconsin ginseng produces a cooling effect, while Asian ginseng has a heating effect on the body. People often take both as a supplement to maintain a healthy balance of yin and yang. For hundreds of years, traditional Chinese medicine doctors in China have used American Wisconsin ginseng for a number of ailments, from anemia to pregnancy problems, to erectile dysfunc- tion to menopause. Canadian researchers also have found that consuming American Wisconsin ginseng helps treat the com- mon cold. One study, published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal in 2005, found that American Wisconsin ginseng successfully reduced the number and severity of colds in research subjects. It also found that extracts of American Wisconsin ginseng enhance immune responses and stimulate natural killer cell cytotoxicity to keep the body healthy through peak illness periods. Also, American Wisconsin ginseng is known to improve stamina and resist stress. Often called an adaptogen, it helps the body adapt to prevailing stressful situations. There are numerous ongo- ing studies on American Wisconsin gin- seng, which represent a growing Western interest in herbal medicine and alterna- tive therapies. Science continues to confirm the validity of the traditional Chinese medi- cine doctors' wisdom. The Mayo Clinic completed research in 2008 that proved that American Wisconsin Ginseng improved energy levels in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy and enhanced their overall mental, physical, spiritual and emotional well-being. "We hope that American Wisconsin ginseng may offer us a much-needed treatment to improve our patients' quality of life and we look forward to fur- ther evaluation," said Debra Barton, R.N., Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic cancer researcher and the study's primary investigator. The Ginseng Board of Wisconsin was established in 1986 as a nonprofit organization representing all Wisconsin ginseng growers. There are approximate- ly 200 ginseng growers in the state. For more information, visit www.ginseng board.com.