Sharon Spielman, Food Engineering (SS): Tell me briefly about New Mexico Fresh Foods & Verde Foods brands.

Kelly Egolf (KE): New Mexico Fresh Foods is a social enterprise committed to growing the local food economy of New Mexico by bringing new food processing technology to Albuquerque. We purchased Verde Food Company, which manufactures premium cold-pressed juice—many of the ingredients for which are grown by local farmers—to be the backbone of our cold-packaging and private labeling offerings. Additionally, we are the first HPP tolling company in the Southwest and the only commercial manufacturer of cold-pressed hemp juice.

SS: I understand you purchased an HPP machine for your products. Was New Mexico Fresh Food utilizing a toller for their products prior to this HPP installation? If so, for how long?

KE: Verde Juice made the decision to begin using HPP on our cold pressed juices in 2017, only 18 months after opening our juice bar in Santa Fe. Being in a tourism-driven city meant that Verde was immediately inundated with shipping requests from all over the country for our juice line. Achieving a longer shelf life without compromising on quality was essential to begin distribution, and we quickly discovered HPP was the only option to do it all.

SS: When did the company decide to purchase its own HPP machine?

KE: In 2018, we launched our second equity campaign to open a $10 million HPP tolling facility. We knew there would be excess capacity on our HPP machine and we were keenly aware of the needs of local food producers to access preservation technology that did not rely on heat pasteurization or chemical preservatives. Our social commitment to our community makes it a natural fit to grow into the role of HPP tolling and cold-packaging for local food producers.

SS: Tell me about the cost analysis (if there was one) that made the company choose to purchase their own HPP machine.

KE: In our cost analysis, we included the cost of product lost to expiration. Once we calculated the value of the labor and food costs for juice we were pouring down the drain each week, we knew we were on to something. HPP treating our juice increased our shelf life by a factor of 30, which meant we could begin regional distribution and meet the food safety requirements for big retailers like Whole Foods and Albertsons. Not only are we able to scale up Verde Juice, but we’ve also been able to add new lines of private labeling, like fresh citrus juice for restaurants and hotels.

SS: If you were to make lists of the pros and cons for both using a toller and owning HPP equipment, what would those lists look like?

KE: There are several advantages to using a tolling company. A food manufacturer can continue to do what they do best—making amazing food. That means saving critical capital for product development and marketing and maintaining a smaller staff and lower overhead. It also means the smaller companies can increase their food safety and outsource the final CCP to a reputable HPP toller.

The primary disadvantages of working with HPP tolling is the transportation cost and the risk that brings to your company. Established HPP tollers are often booked up and don’t have a lot of flexibility in their schedules to accommodate last minute production changes. During COVID, with all of its supply chain and transportation disruptions, we found this to be a particularly challenging issue. Living in the Rocky Mountain region also means dealing with weather-related delays. There have been several days that our truck was stuck on the highway full of perishable product during a winter snowstorm and we missed our delivery window to our HPP toller. They always figured out how to accommodate us but it wasn’t always easy and it wasn’t always cheap to rearrange everything around a winter storm.

For companies that don’t have HPP tolling options nearby, contract manufacturing is a great way to make the most HPP offers without the downsides of the expense. It also may mean easier distribution to areas of the country that are otherwise cost-prohibitive to reach due to the high cost of refrigerated freight.

New Mexico Fresh Foods received several economic development grants in large part because it will grow the food economy of New Mexico. We are already have conversations with HPP juice and food manufacturers from both coasts seeking to use our co-manufacturing services and HPP is a central selling point to companies looking to relocate or expand into the Southwest region. Because we are positioned at the intersection of I-40 and I-25, we offer easy access for trucking lanes going in all four directions.

SS: What features were you looking for your HPP equipment to have? How did New Mexico Fresh Food choose the equipment they ultimately purchased?

KE: We visited several HPP facilities and interviewed a number of owners to compare manufacturers. In the end, we were swayed by Avure’s smaller footprint and the ability to scale the units up by adding intensifiers over time.

SS: Since installing your own HPP equipment, I understand New Mexico Fresh Food has become a toller. Was this a factor when making the decision to purchase a machine?

KE: Becoming an HPP toller was not the original intention. We first looked to acquire HPP for our purposes and co-manufacturing alone. As we did our research, however, we realized that operating as a tolling facility would not only help us bring in extra revenue, but it would bring new opportunities to grow food innovation across our state.

SS: Can you offer any stats (financial, efficiency-wise, production-value, etc.) since installing your own HPP machine? Can you share information on the ROI for an HPP machine?

KE: We aren’t prepared to share any of this information yet.

SS: What were the biggest challenges when installing your own HPP machine? How were these overcome?

KE: Site selection was our biggest challenge. HPP tolling requires easy access to the freeway for trucking and ample refrigerated storage space, so that clients can leave product at our facility either temporarily or as long-term cold storage. The vacancy rate for commercial space in Albuquerque was under 3% and we had to wait to find the right facility to meet our needs.

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?

KE: We had an 8-hour drive to reach our tolling facility and that was a true drag on the company’s growth for nearly three years. If I’d known how difficult it would be to get our tolling facility started, however, I may have decided to move our production closer to a tolling facility. That would have meant leaving New Mexico, so we are truly grateful to Bernalillo County and to the state of New Mexico for all they did to allow us to keep Verde Juice in the Land of Enchantment.

SS: Anything else you’d like to share?

KE: We understand what it is to be the little company with big dreams of scaling up, and New Mexico Fresh Foods will not turn anyone away. We are committed to premium customer service to our clients and helping New Mexico companies overcome the barriers of growing up and being innovative. FE