FOR LILO FRUITS, QUALITY PRESERVATION A REALITY THROUGH HERMETIC BAGS

FOR LILO FRUITS, QUALITY PRESERVATION A REALITY THROUGH HERMETIC BAGS

LILO Fruits is not your typical fruit trading company. Based in Costa Rica, owners Kris Carvajal and Junior Quesada are passionate about employing innovative and improved ways to protect the quality of their organically-grown products. Their obsession gained the trust and confidence of their customers, both locally and abroad. One of the ways they safely preserve their coffee and turmeric, is by packing them in GrainPro® SuperGrainbags® (SGB) -- an Ultra Hermetic™ liner with super low permeability to air and moisture.

The company grows organically different types of foodcrops at their Finca Lilo de Biolley, situated inside the largest rainforest park in Central America. The beautiful and lush location is perfect for growing various food crops that include various fruits-bearing trees such as lime, graviola, rambutan, banana, and coffee, and spices such as black pepper and their prized turmeric.

“LILO Fruits strives to inspire our buyers and our communities to lead an active, healthy lifestyle by offering simple and convenient options that are always fresh, safe and healthy,” explains Jennifer Long, a partner and spokesperson. Their commitment to their customers, farmers and the communities they belong to motivates them to utilize bio-intensive, bio-dynamic and permaculture techniques to ensure that they have the best, healthiest, cleanest, and the freshest offerings.

However, protecting their organically-grown commodities against insects and fungal growth is a major cause of concern. This is when LILO Fruits began using SGBs.

Other similar companies would’ve resorted to chemical fumigation. A common problem among companies that promote organically-grown commodities is that they employ inorganic measures along their production processes. Chemicals tend to kill adult insects, but leave eggs to develop and do damage later. Additionally, chemical residues are left on the commodities, which are eventually ingested by consumers. These are some of the reasons why international regulations are implementing tighter policies on the use of chemical fumigants on food crops.

The SuperGrainbag is just one of many Ultra Hermetic solutions developed by GrainPro. It’s an affordable liner bag designed to protect dried agricultural commodities against infestation and mold growth, while preserving freshness and aromatic qualities for more than a year. What’s more is that using the SGB can kill all insects, including their eggs, without chemical fumigation.

“We’ve had positive results from using the GrainPro bags (SGB) in shipping roasted coffee and powdered turmeric,” says Long. She described that they store the commodities in double layered SGBs for added protection. “I am happy that the bags organically control insects without any chemical residues. GrainPro truly pleases us!”

The combination of the quality of their products’ and their handling make them stand out in the market. They have big plans ahead, too. Organic medicinal food products made of raw materials grown from the region are already in the works.

It’s all about quality. Through Ultra Hermetic storage, LILO Fruits has a sustainable way to safely preserve quality without putting in chemicals that could harm those they serve their products to. The future is looking bright for LILO Fruits.

WINNING THE WAR AGAINST STALE, MOLDY FLAVORED SPECIALTY COFFEE

WINNING THE WAR AGAINST STALE, MOLDY FLAVORED SPECIALTY COFFEE

When it comes to coffee, flavor is king. 

Roasters around the world pay huge sums to purchase single-origin varieties that yield distinct flavor and aromatic characters. Their customers also pay a premium for a sip. Often, however, the subtle differences and undertones are lost by the time the coffee arrives at the shop. This leaves a bad taste to both roasters and customers.

Many consumers seeking high-quality coffee have acquired a taste for this kind of coffee. The majority of top-rated quality restaurants in the US actually cater to the acquired taste of deadened generic woodiness coated with dark-roasted caramel and carbon flavoring.  From a business standpoint, this is the profitable course of actions. After all, consumers won’t know the difference.

With the high demand for coffee, the ability to protect both quality and quantity is allowing everyone to experience coffee at its primeval, and uncontaminated state. 

Coffee doesn’t just magically teleport itself from the farm to your cup. It takes a long time for coffee from remote villages in Asia, Africa or Latin America to arrive in the US. For example, bags of coffee from Guatemala that are shipped out to specialty coffee houses in Australia and Asia take months to arrive, often spending long layovers at Middle Eastern seaports.

But that’s only half the story. 

Coffee is traditionally packed in burlap or jute bags, and it doesn’t take long for the beans to absorb the undesirable  taste of these bags. By the time the bags reach their destination, they may be infested, caked with molds, and have developed an moldy taste from the long exposure to the jute bags.

George Howell, a pioneer of the specialty-coffee movement in the US in the early 1970’s and a recipient of the Specialty Coffee Association of America Lifetime Achievement Award, sums it all up: 

“Green coffee is shipped and stored in woven jute or sisal bags, which have been coated with petroleum-based batching oils to increase fiber yield and facilitate the spinning process. Green coffee is traditionally kept in these bags for the year or more it takes to go through them (fine coffee is harvested once a year). And so, the green coffee devolved – exposed to oxygen, changes in the environment and to the bags themselves.”

Howell recommends packing coffee beans in hermetically sealed bags to prevent the evaporation of the aromatic oils that give it its unique aroma and flavor. Second, it prevents coffee from coming into contact with the jute bags, thus, preventing coffee from absorbing the foul odors caught in the bags. Finally, hermetically-sealed bag protects the beans against the exchange of air and moisture to stop infestation and fungal contamination.

It was a losing battle until the coffee industry came to discover Ultra Hermetic™ liner bags. This simple innovation, which was initially developed in 2002, has helped protect both quality and quantity of coffee all over the world. In fact, the patented GrainPro® SuperGrainbag® (SGB), a pioneering force in Ultra Hermetic storage technology, has become synonymous to the safe preservation of coffee. The SGB allowed coffee to arrive direct from the farms in pristine condition to allow drinkers around the world to experience the distinct aromas and flavors that the farmers cultivated.

“In coffee growing areas prone to weather volatility, parchment storage in GrainPro bags is critical to maintaining quality,” explained Caravela Coffee – an international coffee trader with offices in the US, UK and Australia. “Without this extra layer, green beans can re-humidify, undoing the stability achieved in the drying process, thereby reducing the coffee’s shelf life.”

Meanwhile, in Australia, Dominic Majdandzic of White Horse Coffee in Sydney went as far as saying that the SGB is thegreatest advancement in coffee. “These humble bags not only maintain the freshness and integrity of the coffee, they also increase the longevity of coffee by up to four times,” revealed Dominic in his blog article.

The SGB is also a good solution for the safe and chemical-free preservation of other staple food grains and seeds, and high-value commodities. These bags are widely used for rice from Southeast Asia, spices from India, maize from Africa, and cacao from the Latin Americas. 

With the high demand for coffee, the ability to protect both quality and quantity is allowing everyone to experience coffee at its primeval, and uncontaminated state. Ultra Hermetic liner bags such as the GrainPro SGB are leading the way in a winning war against undesirable and baggy flavors, ultimately, to the benefit of everyone who loves coffee.

US-BASED CRAFT CHOCOLATIER STORES PRIZE CACAO IN GRAINPRO BAGS

US-BASED CRAFT CHOCOLATIER STORES PRIZE CACAO IN GRAINPRO BAGS

While the international coffee trade has benefitted greatly from using GrainPro® SuperGrainbags® (SGBs) to organically preserve specialty and single-origin beans, the cacao industry has yet to fully discover the benefits of these miracle liner bags. One chocolatier in Los Angeles, California knows how these SGBs can protect both quality and quantity of their cacao stocks and shared to us how they are using these bags in their operations.

Letter Press Chocolate is California’s fastest growing craft chocolatier who sources their cacao from single origin farmers in Peru, Belize, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic. According to their website, when the bags arrive at their facility in L.A., the first thing they do is empty each one out. The bags are lined with GrainPro SGBs and refilled with the cacao beans. They added that they do this to keep out insects, and to preserve the freshness of the beans.

“The first thing we do when we get bags is empty them out, line the bags with GrainPro plastic, then refill them. We do this so that the beans stay fresher longer and keep out pests.” -- LetterPress Chocolate

Rightfully so. 

Letter Press Chocolate is the type of chocolatier that truly loves chocolates, and understands the value of protecting their most important investment – the cacao. According to their website, they don’t like how most chocolates taste artificial, and full of sugar and vanillin. They want their customers to experience the subtle differences and characters of each single-origin cacao they sourced from different regions – much like coffee or wine. 

A joint study between Ghana, Israel and the Philippines in 2008 validates the effectiveness of GrainPro SGBs in protecting cacao against insects. Cacao beans were stored for 30 days in SGBs. Steep decline in oxygen concentration and anoxia was observed only after 15 days, resulting in 100 percent mortality of the insect population, including eggs and larvae.

An additional benefit of using the SGB is that it can protect and extend the aroma and flavor of the beans. Like coffee, cacao also comes in burlap or jute bags. After a while of being inside these bags, the beans may absorb the undesirable aromatic qualities of jute that are reflected in the flavor and aroma of the cacao. This results in the development of undesirable aromatic qualities and flavors.

Besides using GrainPro SGBs, Letter Press Chocolate is also a firm believer in cacao farmers. They forge direct relationships with farmers and provide much needed support to cooperatives. Additionally, farmers are paid a premium amount to help raise their quality of life.

Despite being relatively new, Letter Press Chocolate has already won the prestigious Good Food™ Award in 2017 for their Costa Esmeraldas Ecuador Chocolate bar. This achievement proves that their philosophy of sustainability and transparency is working for them, their farmers and customers.