Fresh Express is a leading produce company that has created the first ready-to-eat packaged Garden Salad. Available in grocery stores nationwide, Fresh Express uses high quality vegetables in order to deliver the freshest and healthies salads possible.
About Fresh Express
Started in the Roaring Twenties, the story of Fresh Express begins with founder Bruce Church. A produce visionary and entrepreneur, Bruce returned to Salinas Valley, CA and began to explore the produce industry.
In the early 1930s, Bruce and his three partners started an ice company that ended up supporting the growing surge of packing and shipping fresh heads of lettuce across America in ice-packed rail cars. Since then, the company has grown to become one of the leading producers of ready-to-eat salads.
To meet America’s needs and wants for fresh salads, Fresh Express became successful rapidly. In order to provide Americans with healthier alternatives, in 1989, Fresh Express had managed to have ready-to-eat packaged Garden Salad available in every grocery nationwide.
Pioneering the industry, the company was dedicated to freshness and the importance of green and leafy vegetables. To support their passion for salad and healthy food, the company created family menus that featured delicious combinations of fresh salad recipes. Today, Fresh Express continues to deliver tasty and nutritious fresh products to health-conscious consumers.
Born from the Chiquita Brand, which is a company that grows, procures, markets, and sells fresh fruits and vegetables, the Fresh Fruit product line is the company’s unit of ready-to-eat salads. Using the motto “Fresh Always Matters”, Fresh Express produces approximately 40 million pounds of salad every month.
With Americans consuming more than 20 million services of Fresh Express salads every week, the company ensures ultimate freshness by cultivating lettuces from the field coolers just hours after harvest. Washed, rinsed, and gently dried, the Fresh Express salads are sealed in patented breathable bags that lock in the freshness.
Free of preservatives, all of the Fresh Express produce follows a comprehensive food safety system that protects customers from harmful chemicals and pesticides.
How Fresh Express Works
The goal at Fresh Express is to make the freshest, most flavorful salads that money can buy. Passionate about their philosophy, care and respect goes into every stage of making a Fresh Express salad.
Because of hard work and passion, the end results allow consumers to enjoy delicious salads every day. Using a 6-stage process, the first stage of Fresh Express is selecting the seeds and planting them in organic soil that is free of chemicals and pesticides.
The second stage, involves harvesting the produce. Only harvested at peak maturity, after they are collected, they are then kept in a temperature controlled environment, which is the third stage. The fourth stage involves blending the perfect salad recipe. Stage five employs safety precautions, and the final stage is when Fresh Express is finally delivered across the country.
Because lettuce plants are extremely delicate, it is essential that they are grown in ideal environments. Unable to grow in any climate, they are best sourced in climates with moderate temperatures. Ensuring that the area is not too cold or too hot, Fresh Express has carefully selected each of their growing regions.
In order to grow the lettuce all year round, they have chosen a variety of harvesting regions. Alternating during different seasons, the growing regions are as follows are located in various U.S states such as Arizona, Georgia, California, Florida, North Carolina, Michigan, Ohio, New York, and Colorado. Featuring growing regions outside of the United States, Fresh Express also harvests from Canada and Mexico.
Purchasing Fresh Express
Fresh Express pre-packaged, ready-to-eat Garden Salad produce is available in local grocery retailers. Customers can use the website (www.FreshExpress.com) to locate the nearest retailer.
