Subway adds sliced apples to its menu

A fresh-cut fruit processor is supplying Subway with sliced, bagged apples for its new Fresh Fit meals.

Sun Rich Fresh Foods has been working with Subway for a couple years to prepare for the national product launch, which started last month, said Carl Svangtun, Sun Rich’s executive vice president and chief operating officer.

“Subway has been working on this for a long time,” he said. “This is a culmination of a lot of that work.”

Fresh Fit meals are a new component of Subway’s commitment to providing healthy options for adults and kids. The meals were designed to fit in with the American Heart Association’s approach to a healthy lifestyle, said Les Winograd, Subway’s public relations coordinator. The Fresh Fit line offers eight subs with 6 grams of fat or less; sides like sliced apples, raisins or baked chips; and drinks like low-fat milk, diet soda or bottled water, according to www.subway.com.

“We believe we’re the first major quick service restaurant that offers a full line of meals that are better for you, based on sensible serving sizes, low saturated fats and cholesterol and a good source of nutrients,” Winograd said.

The Fresh Fit program, which had its origins in California test markets, garnered a lot of attention from the media during its national launch, Winograd said.

Sun Rich’s role is to supply sliced apples, mostly to restaurants in the northeastern United States (a Canadian launch is still in the works). The processor brings in fresh apples from different growing regions – a mixture of red varieties like Gala and Empire and green varieties like Granny Smith and Pippin – and slices, cleans, bags and ships them, Svangtun said.

“(Fresh Fit) is very much in its early stages,” he said. “We look forward to watching it smooth out over time.”

Subway’s product launch is a big piece of business for Sun Rich, but it’s not the only piece. The Vancouver, Canada-based processor has been in the fresh-cut arena since it was founded in 1988. The company’s goals are to make healthy eating easy and to provide a fresh, safe experience every day, Svangtun said.

Sun Rich started in Vancouver’s produce terminal, where it began processing high-quality fruit items with a staff of four people. Now, it has advanced, high-volume processing facilities in Vancouver, Los Angeles and Toronto, according to
www.sun-rich.com.

Sun Rich processes fruit for foodservice and retail customers across North America. The company gets its apples, melons, pineapple and other fruit from major growing regions like California, Arizona, Texas and Central America, Svangtun said.