Consumer Demand Strong for Microwavable Butternut Squash

Pre-cut vegetables in a microwavable bag have proven a popular hit for Onofrio’s Fresh-Cut in New Haven, Conn. Jim and Ed Onofrio, along with Ralph Parillo, partners in the six-year-old company, are particularly excited with the demand for their diced butternut squash. Two years ago, they were marketing around 200,000 pounds a year; in 2005 they did well more than 1 million pounds.

“The demand for this product has been phenomenal,” said Parillo, who heads company sales. “After December, it’s generally difficult to sell butternut squash to anyone, but, here, we continue to enjoy very good sales. We’re still selling tons of them.”

Why the demand? The squash are hand-cut – adding additional shelf life – and are packed in a clear film bag, formed automatically with a vertical form, fill and seal packaging system. The clear bag reveals full visibility of the quality of the contents. In addition, the integrity of the package provides that the bag can be popped in a microwave, cooked and served in 8 to 10 minutes, Parillo said. Recipes informing customers how to use the squash are on the package.

Also proving popular for the company are diced yams, turnips, potatoes and other combinations – all in microwavable bags and all hand-cut.

“We’re also successfully marketing fruit and vegetables in trays and packages, mainly for retail,” Parillo said.

Meat Industry Background

Less than a decade ago, Parillo was working in the meat business marketing case-ready meat. During the same period, current partners Jim and Ed Onofrio were operating Onofrio’s Market, a specialty retail store, along with wholesaling fruits and vegetables to Parillo and other customers. Both businesses were in New Haven.

“I was putting together a lot of kabobs for local retailers and needed cut peppers and onions,” Parillo said. “Since Jim and Ed Onofrio were delivering whole product to our plant, and since I had to outsource the peppers and onions to have them cut and ready for the kabobs, I asked if they could do it. When they said they could, we entered into a business relationship.”

The Onofrio brothers purchased a former meat plant and the trio entered into a new business venture.

Renovations began immediately. Less than 1,000 square feet of the plant’s 35,000 square-foot capacity were used for actual fresh-cut fruit and vegetable processing. However, that soon changed.

“Our first retail customer was Stew Leonards, one of the largest dairy, fruit, vegetable and meat stores in the East,” Parillo said. “The company has stores in Norwalk and Danbury, Conn., as well as Yonkers, N.Y. A fourth new store also is in the planning. When we began sending cut fruit and vegetables their way, other retailers soon began showing interest. Before long, we were doing business with Kings Supermarkets in New Jersey, King Kullen Supermarkets in Long Island, Big Y Supermarkets, Stop & Shop Supermarket, Shop Rite and Trader Joe’s, to name a few.”

During the initial start-up, financing was difficult, but after the first year in business, borrowing money was no longer a problem. Sales were in the $500,000 range, and the indicators for future growth were positive. Five years later, at the end of 2004, company sales topped $10 million.

Additional property adjacent to their plant site has been purchased for future growth. Company sales have been strong enough that the partners are considering widening their base and going national.

“Our customers are our key,” Parillo said. “Recognizing that, we pay close attention to the quality of our products. We’re working with many great retail customers and are anxious to become more involved in the foodservice market.”

Onofrio’s Fresh-Cut uses private labels on all of its retail products. It also markets sauces and marinades and is developing a new line of vegetable-based fresh soups for retail.

While diced butternut squash, yams, potatoes and turnips and other vegetable combinations remain customer favorites during the winter months, vegetable and meat kabobs dominate the summer months.

USDA Daily Inspection

Two years ago, the partners signed on for daily USDA plant inspections. With his experience handling meat, a regulated industry, Parillo was determined, from the beginning, to ensure that the new plant’s working environment is as safe as possible, assuring the quality of the fresh-cut fruit and vegetable products flowing out of the plant and into the marketplace.

“We are the only USDA vegetable and meat plant on the East Coast. That’s why we have a USDA inspector, along with our own inspectors, here every day,” he said. “They are here to help guarantee that we’re doing all of the right things. History has shown that the produce industry hasn’t always been the cleanest it could be in terms of sanitary practices. But in the fresh-cut business, especially, we have to be clean. We all need to remember that people are eating what we produce.”

Onofrio’s Fresh-Cut has a full food safety and quality assurance program in place, including HACCP, GMPs and other basics. A staff of fully trained professionals monitor everything daily.

To further extend product shelf life, the company uses a triple-stage wash system. A scrubber is positioned at the head of the line. After moving through the scrubber, produce is washed in a chlorine-based solution and then moves through a second wash and rinse cycle. From there, it is channeled though an air blower and onto the benches for hand cutting.

“Our in-house quality control people test daily to make sure everything is kept spotless,” Parillo said. “Swab testing on the benches and other surfaces takes place, and samples are collected and sent to nearby labs just to make sure.”

Three main things are important to extending product shelf life: the type of packaging, product cleanliness and refrigeration or the temperature in which the product is kept, he said.

On the packaging side, the company evacuates the air from its tray-packed fruit products and then back flushes with nitrogen. The partners are sold on the value of a repack machine supplied through Bernie Katz of Telesonic Packaging Corp. in Wilmington, Del. Downtime for changing tray sizes is only 20 minutes compared to four or five hours with others they have used. The company’s microwavable bag packaging system also is supplied by Telesonic and adds a great deal to their success.

Today, Jim Onofrio serves as company president, Ed Onofrio is vice president and Parillo is vice president secretary. From the beginning, the three have been hands-on in terms of involvement in the business.

For more information on Onofrio, call (203) 469-5624.