TRADE ASSOCIATE UPDATE
Purfresh – purifying, protecting and preserving
 |
Purfresh Wash is a chemical-free food safety solution for fresh
produce that uses ozone technology to kill pathogens.
|
FFVA trade associate member Purfresh is all about thoughtful innovation.
Since President and CEO David Cope took the reins of the company about
five years ago, the firm has emerged as a global leader in its
field. Purfresh is focused on providing clean, science-based solutions
to help fruit and vegetable producers reduce risk, control costs and
improve the quality of their products and operations.,
“We’re a company that tries to deliver innovation to the
entire food supply chain,” said Cope, says Purfresh started
in 1996 as a “raw technology company.” An example is
the Purshade product, being used all over the world to prevent sun
damage to crops. “It preferentially blocks the damaging
wavelengths of sunlight so that growers get higher yields, less physical
damage and more efficient use of water on a variety of commodities
including tomatoes and melons,” Cope said. “It comes in two
flavors – conventional and organic.”
The reason Purshade works, says Cope, is that it was developed with
no pre-conceived ideas in mind. “There have been a lot of attempts
to block the sun in crops – mainly centered around a
non-scientific approach of grinding up white clay and spraying it on the
plants,” said Cope. “What we did really reflects the culture
of our company. We stood back and thought about ways to approach the
problem scientifically with no baggage, if you will. Actually,
that’s how we develop all our products.”
The company employs a battery of scientists and the latest analytical
equipment to develop its products. Cope calls it a marriage of Silicon
Valley technology experts and food science and agriculture experts.
“Our goal is to help the food industry utilize innovative
solutions that are easy and fit in with the way growers do
business.”
In addition to Purshade, Purfresh offers post-harvest technologies to
help keep food safe, fresh and wholesome.
Purfresh Wash is a chemical-free food safety solution for fresh
produce that uses ozone technology to kill pathogens. It dissolves ozone
into water at precise concentrations, which is sprayed on the commodity
to kill a broad spectrum of microorganisms, while creating precise
records for use in third-party audits and other inspections.
 |
Purfresh Wash harnesses the power of oxygen to activate it with an
electrical source of energy, temporarily create ozone, and deliver
it to kill pathogens on produce.
|
“Ozone is really effective in that it kills microorganisms and it
also eliminates ethylene, which causes fruit to spoil
prematurely,” Cope said, emphasizing that past attempts to develop
a commercially viable application were not satisfactory
because they were hard to deliver and control.
“We’ve figured out a way to harness the power of oxygen to
activate it with an electrical source of energy, temporarily create this
very active species of oxygen called ozone, and deliver it at the right
place at the right time and at the right concentration,” Cope
said.
“And then after the ozone does it work, let’s say after
it kills an e-coli cell, it instantly reverts back to pure
oxygen,” he explained. “It leaves no residue. There are
no disposal issues, and it’s certified organic. It works well for
both conventional and organically grown products.”
Purfresh also applies its ozone technology to cold storage and
transportation of fresh produce.
Finally, no system is effective without proper records and
documentation that proves it’s doing its job “For
 |
Navel oranges treated with Purshade,
which protects crops from overexposure
to the sun.
|
example, all our post-harvest technologies measure the conditions in
cold storage rooms or in shipping containers, and then feed that
information to a Web-based application called Intellipur,” said
Cope. “So all our customers have real-time visibility and get a
complete report documenting every condition at every moment. You have
the ability to solve problems if they occur, and then you have the
ability to go back and do continual product improvement or deal with an
incident.”
Cope describes the common thread in all the company’s offerings
as “clean chemistry,” a thoughtful approach to development.
“We want to offer products that work but also are safe for people,
product and the environment,” he said.
Purfresh operates from its headquarters in Fremont, Calif., and
serves its customers through sales and support locations in Washington,
New York, Southern California, Central California, Georgia and North
Carolina. It also operates offices in Chile and Australia. Find out more
on the company’s Web site (www.purfresh.com) or call (877)
668-0303.
