Maglio Produce maintains sustainability by reducing food waste

At Maglio Produce, the more produce that ends up in consumers’ mouths, the less that ends up in landfills—a win for everyone along the food chain.

“To us, sustainability is the elimination of food waste,” said Richard Butera, the Milwaukee-based company’s director of business development. “There’s nothing worse than investing in growing a commodity only to dispose of it somewhere along the chain. That is the most unsustainable part of agriculture today.”

In fact, sustainability is front and center throughout the company with officials at the 121-year-old produce importer and distributor stressing that Maglio is putting a lot of resources into developing renewable energy. That process includes installing solar panels on its facilities’ roof tops, which plays an important role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and mitigating climate change and being a part of Walmart’s Project Gigaton, which aims to reduce or avoid one billion metric tons—a gigaton—of greenhouse gases from the global value chain by 2030.

“We have also created a ‘retail shipper unit’ to display and market the readyripe pouch for the consumer that wishes to purchase the ¼ sliced watermelon pouch, take it home, and utilize it for the whole watermelon that they purchased,” he adds. “It is a sustainable product to use at home.”

Butera emphasizes that Maglio officials believe in technology to fuel innovation. “Properties of packaging materials need to work with the post-harvest physiology of the target commodity to create a valuable impact for the retailer and eventually the consumer,” he notes. “Some items need to accommodate high rates of respiration while others need to have zero oxygen transmission.”

Maglio also excels in natural shelf-life extension, he adds. For example, Beer Lime packaging protects and delivers 21-plus days of shelf life without refrigeration in an attractive stand-up format. “By way of oxygen transfer rate and our patented film technology, the ‘readyripe watermelon pouch’ provides innovation that optimizes the quality and flavor of the watermelon, with minimal wicking, an attractive design, extended shelf life, a reduction in processing by 50-70 percent, decreased shrink, all while increasing food safety,” he says. “Also new to the industry is the ReadySafe packaging program, which holds treated fresh-cut product for more than 21 days.”

Company officials stress that packaging has a threefold job. One is to protect the produce, both physically and microbiologically, which is critical for ready-to-eat products. It is also there to prevent food waste by extending shelf life as well as drive sales at retail through attractive and compelling designs.

“Maglio’s innovation and packaging solutions are continually evolving to meet the

dynamic needs of today’s produce buyers, Butera adds. “We maintain a steadfast commitment to developing forward-thinking attributes that will evolve with the consumer’s demands and industry technology.”

Maglio officials say they provide products that are unrivaled in the markets today. Butera adds that from fresh cut produce with extended shelf life, cold pressed juices packed with nutritious benefits, to fresh fruit and vegetable program compliant snack packs, Maglio has an enormous amount of options that are renowned for quality, value and satisfaction.

An employee of Maglio for more than a decade, Butera says the company, started in 1902 by Giacomo Maglio, a recent immigrant from Sicily and now in the fifth generation of family ownership, is eager to work with retailers and suppliers to stay ahead of the curve. He challenges the industry to work with Maglio to develop a strategy “to alleviate the pain points. We thrive on analyzing a situation, brainstorming possible solutions, testing multiple theories of resolution, collaborating on a proposed solution, implementing the newly developed process, reviewing the efficacy and refining the procedure until we have optimized it. We pride ourselves in becoming your solution provider.”

Company officials realize that the pressure is on to keep innovating. Butera says that the marketplace is requesting better tasting, fresher and longer lasting ready-to-eat products. “Maglio focuses on delivering that request using the latest technology in process and packaging,” he said. “We have taken ugly produce that typically has a short shelf life and made juice out of it. The juice is treated with a high-pressure, cold-water process to extend shelf life and destroy pathogens while the leftover pulp is fed to animals. It is a win for the grower, a win for the consumer and a win for the animals. We will continue to evolve as a company to create more sustainable practices to eliminate food waste.”