New Ocean Spray Plant Opens Doors To Meet Demand

Ocean Spray Ingredient Technology Group (ITG), one of the world's leading fruit ingredients suppliers, has opened a new state-of-the-art processing plant to meet growing European demand for its Sweetened Dried Cranberries (SDCs) and Flavoured Fruit Pieces (FFPs). As the Middleboro plant gets fully operational, the cooperative has already announced plans to double the new plant's production capacity in the next year.

Located at Ocean Spray's headquarters in Middleboro, Massachusetts, USA, the latest plant will produce approximately twelve millions of pounds of SDCs and FFPs per year. It also has the flexibility to carry out shorter custom runs, allowing Ocean Spray to produce a wide range of new ingredients for its customers.

The operation has been fully equipped with the same high grade processing systems recently introduced at Ocean Spray's Tomah, Wisconsin plant, which resulted in the development of a new brighter, juicier Soft and Moist SDC. Advanced design features to enhance product quality and efficiency have also been incorporated into the new plant.

Commenting on the opening, plant manager Jim Repetto said: "This development will allow us to increase our SDC output, to ensure that we meet the demand for cranberries as consumption rises across Europe – something we are very excited about. We also look forward to meeting industry requirements for customised ingredients, via the shorter production runs facilitated by the new plant."

Ocean Spray's SDCs and FFPs are popular value-added ingredients due to their healthy proposition, process tolerance and ability to sustain their vibrant colour throughout the mixing process. Both are ideally suited to a wide variety of bakery, confectionery, snack and cereal applications.

Source: Ocean Spray