Jeff Morris
President of Fresh Innovations LLC, Rhome, Texas
Sharon Spielman, Food Engineering (SS): Tell me briefly about Fresh Innovations and ¡Yo Quiero! brands.
Jeff Morris (JM): Fresh Innovations LLC, is the parent company of ¡Yo Quiero! brands. At Fresh Innovations, we create and manufacture avocado and guacamole products as well as salsa, queso and cream cheese-based dips. The owners of the company have over 100 years combined experience in the avocado and dip categories, and they’ve come together, again, to provide excellent products for retailer and food service operations.
SS: I understand you have always used high pressure processing for your avocado and guacamole products. How did you learn of HPP?
JM: The founder of our company learned about HPP over 20 years ago as he was looking for a way to keep his avocados and guacamole fresher, longer. When he discovered how HPP could help avocados maintain their freshness longer—without added chemicals or preservatives—he purchased a machine and the rest is history.
SS: Had you ever considered using a toller? Why or why not?
JM: We view toll processors as a way to prove out new product concepts. Proving the market acceptance of new products is critical in our decision-making process before purchasing an HPP machine or increasing our HPP capacity with an additional machine.
Throughput, service, reliability and spare parts cost are key factors that Fresh Innovations considered when choosing its HPP equipment. Photo courtesy of Fresh Innovations LLC
SS: Did you start off with one HPP machine and grow from there?
JM: We started with a couple of machines, and as the machines grew and increased their throughput, we were able to move to larger machines.
SS: What features were you looking for your HPP equipment to have? How did Fresh Innovations choose the equipment and the supplier they ultimately purchased?
JM: Throughput, service, reliability and spare parts cost are key factors we look at for choosing our HPP equipment.
SS: Is Fresh Innovations a toller for other processors? If so, was this always a part of the business model? If not, why not?
JM: We are currently not a toll processor but have explored this in the past. We are always open to being a toller; however, it depends on the products and if they fit into our current operation.
Fresh Innovations uses HPP to create and manufacture avocado and guacamole products as well as salsa, queso and cream cheese-based dips. Photo courtesy of Fresh Innovations LLC
SS: Can you share information on the ROI for an HPP machine?
JM: We currently do not evaluate our purchases using an ROI as it is subjective when you view the food safety benefits. One recall could potentially pay for the cost of an HPP machine.
SS: What were the biggest challenges when installing your HPP machines? How were these overcome?
JM: Overall, there are not too many challenges to install an HPP machine. Hiperbaric engineers provide lots of support so the install is seamless.
SS: If you had to do it over, would you change anything? What advice might you offer other companies that are thinking about purchasing their own HPP equipment?
JM: I can think of nothing that would need to change. There have been major improvements in the past 10 years to compact machine design, transportation and installation to provide a smooth installation. I would tell others to ensure they purchase the machine that is sized according to their current and future production capacity and understand their packaging mix (flexible vs. semi-rigid). Hiperbaric provides tools that can help with this decision based on a variety of different packaging types and the throughputs to expect. FE
Intro video courtesy of Getty Images / DKosig
