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By Michele Youngquist, Owner, Bay Baby Produce Bay Baby Produce Inc., a North American grower and leader in painted pumpkins, long stem ornamentals and winter organic squash, is moving into its new state-of-the-art facility. Bay Baby Produce began with just 30 acres of soil, and a vision of creating a family-owned farm around the whimsical notion of giving pumpkins a personality. Like other local farmers, our goal was to provide a good living for our families and employees, while honoring and contributing to the tradi- tions and values of our agricultural communities. In the process of growing our business, we have accomplished much more than we initially envisioned. We've developed a proprietary painting and production process that provides consistent, top quality painted pumpkins. We've expanded our farming operations from 30 acres to a little under 500 and have added organic winter squash. Moving & Expanding Pumpkin Joy Dr. Elis Owens, Director of Technical Services at Birko, answers ques- tions surrounding Listeria and the increased regulation from the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). PSD: Why is Listeria a major concern in fresh-cut produce? EO: Unlike ready-to-eat protein processing, there is no lethality step, such as cooking, for fresh-cut produce. Furthermore, Listeria thrives in the cold, damp, refrigerated environments that are typical of facilities processing fresh or frozen produce. Persistent or 'pet' Listeria strains can become resident in a facility and can be a persistent and troublesome problem for produce processors. PSD: How does Listeria enter a facility, and where does it hide? EO: Listeria may come in on the product itself, through an infestation of pests, on the With the increasing demand of locally grown greenhouse strawberries, DelFrescoPure ® announces phase one of its greenhouse strawberry production expan- sion to 10 acres. The expansion is in pro- duction in order to fulfill marketplace demands for Ontario greenhouse grown straw- berries all year long. "Within the past two years, we decided to enter the greenhouse strawberry produc- tion as an experiment and have succeeded beyond our expectations," said Carl Mastronardi, President of Del Fresco Produce Ltd. "The flavor profile, sweetness level and overall customer feedback has been overwhelming. This encouraged our team to continue with our production, brand development and expansion plans." The expansion features innovative technology for growing in all seasons, including energy curtains and grow lights to provide a half million square-foot con- trolled micro climate environment for growing strawberries. This development has Matrix Packaging Machinery is featur- ing three flexible packaging solutions at this year's United Fresh Tec Expo. Packers and co-packers in the fresh produce industry are able to visit the Matrix booth and get a demonstration of trouble- free packaging and rapid return on their investment when dealing with packaging machinery. Matrix is in booth #2819. The Morpheus servo-driven continuous box motion bagger form fill and seal machine is rated at up to 180 bags per minute and features automatic setup capabilities that reduce changeover time and lead to higher productivity. The Morpheus offers high performance and a completely configurable solution for small and large bags. The high-speed jaw system allows for maximum dwell time on sealing and allows for faster speeds and accuracy, making these units ideal for applications such as fresh cut and individually quick frozen (IQF) foods. The option of either a Beckhoff or AB control system offers a friendly, highly intuitive system and allows the user to quickly adjust Continued on Page 21 Continued on Page 21 Preventing Listeria Contamination in Fresh-Cut Produce Processing DelFrescoPure Expands Strawberry Production Matrix Offers One-Stop Destination for Bag and Pouch Machines Continued on Page 21 Continued on Page 21 Oser Communications Group Chicago Monday, June 25, 2018 AN INDEPENDENT PUBLICATION NOT AFFILIATED WITH UNITED FRESH BOOTH #2819 BOOTH #1244 BOOTH #1435