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Project Cascade: Greenvale AP developing radical potato cleaning system

Cutting-edge technology in new £1million system will improve quality, minimise cross contamination, lengthen shelf life and save enough water to fill 25 Olympic-sized swimming pools every year

Andy Clarkson, left, with project manager Steve Higginbottom in front of Greenvale's Project Cascade. Greenvale AP, the UK’s largest supplier of fresh potatoes, is developing a radical potato cleaning system on its Tern Hill, Shropshire site. The system is code-named Project Cascade and Greenvale aims to have it fully operational by the end of the year. The company says that the very significant quality control benefits it delivers could change the way potatoes and all root vegetables are cleaned – while its water saving potential will have a positive impact on both costs and the environment.

"We’ve developed a whole new approach to cleaning potatoes," says Andy Clarkson, general manager of Greenvale at Tern Hill. "One of the key aspects of Project Cascade is that we’ve brought together technologies from other areas of the food industry, and wider industries, to solve some of the issues that all vegetable processing facilities face."

Greenvale is keeping the details of Project Cascade under wraps for the time being. But once it is proven, the company hopes that other potato and vegetable processors will follow its lead. 

"The benefits are, potentially, enormous," adds Andy Clarkson. "The product quality is dramatically improved, because we are washing in constantly regenerated water. Plus, the new system should all but eliminate the risk of bacterial cross contamination, which is a huge problem for the industry."

For customers and end users, the improved quality is an obvious benefit, while the fact that the potatoes will be bacteria-free means they will have a significantly longer shelf life, too.

Greenvale’s new system will also save enormous quantities of water – and money. Tern Hill currently washes 140,000 tonnes of fresh potatoes per year, which uses up around 82 million litres (18 million gallons) of water. Andy says Project Cascade should cut this figure to just 18 million litres (4 million gallons). "That’s a saving of 64 million litres – more than enough to fill 25 Olympic-sized swimming pools[1], every year!"

Project Cascade goes online after summer 2009 and trials should be completed well before the end of the year.
For more information visit the Greenvale AP website at www.greenvale.co.uk 

Editor’s notes
Greenvale AP is the UK’s leading supplier of fresh potatoes and was awarded the Queens Award for Innovation in 2006. Greenvale AP now supplies the UK’s premier retailers, caterers and processing outlets with quality potatoes, meeting the high standards demanded by the UK market.

Greenvale AP has developed sites in the major potato growing areas across the UK, resulting in three state of the art potato-packing operations situated in Shropshire, Berwickshire and Cambridgeshire. The company also has sales and marketing offices across the UK, including in Norfolk, Suffolk, Somerset, Hereford and Yorkshire. Greenvale AP’s Seed Potato operation is managed from a specialist office at Burrelton, near Perth in Scotland.

Vales Sovereign, a new potato variety from Greenvale AP, won ‘Variety of the Year’ in the Tesco Fresh Produce Category Awards, held on November 20th 2008 at Royal Lancaster Hotel in London. Announcing the award, Alex Dower, the Category Director for Tesco, commended both the sales performance and Greenvale’s work in escalating the availability of Vales Sovereign.

[1] Assuming each pool is 25m wide, 2.0m deep and 50m long

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