Packaged salads: we tell you everything!
Already sorted, washed, drained and cut, packaged salads are seducing more and more. Varied, contributing manner to a balanced diet in a simple and practical, they are made in Bonduelle’s factories... almost like at home! But do you really know what the package contains ?
They are grown in the ground
Bonduelle salads grow in fields – sometimes under a shelter – in crop zones evolving with the seasons: around Lyon, in the South-West and South of France over summer then in Spain or Italy over winter for a bit of warmth. That is what allows them to feature fresh salads all year long. They are harvested, prepared, washed and drained like you would do it at home but in a larger scale, then packaged, everything in a very short time to preserve the taste of fresh products. Small “bonus” for storage: when they are being prepared and cut, Bonduelle cautiously controls knife-sharpening to ensure a clean cut which allows to reduce salad’s natural oxidation process.
There is no conservative in packaged salads
In packaged salad, there is... salad, nothing but salad! In accordance with regulation, no conservative is added. An efficient technique which allows to lengthen the storage of the most fragile salads (iceberg or romaine, for instance): packaging “in a protective atmosphere”. It is simply about modifying the composition of the packaging’s internal atmosphere by reducing the amount of oxygen naturally present in air. Some salads that are sensitive to oxidation can indeed go pink or darken in its presence.
Packaged salads must not be stored in the refrigerator’s crisper
For optimal storage, packaged salads must be placed in the coolest part of the refrigerator and not the crisper! This zone – where temperature is normally 1 and 4 °C varies depending on models (check the user guide). Once the packaging is open, close it as well as you can and replace it in the coolest part then finish it within 24 hours, all before its use-by date of course.