CHICAGO, IL - The fifth anniversary is traditionally known as the wood anniversary, signifying solidarity and strength within a relationship. This same concept can be seen in the partnership between Hazel Technologies and Brooks Tropicals®, as the duo is ringing in five years of collaboration.

“As the first company to partner with Hazel Tech^®, Brooks Tropicals was, in essence, one of the first believers in Hazel Technologies and our mission to reduce food waste,” commented Aidan Mouat, Chief Executive Officer, Hazel Technologies. “They have continued [to] grow alongside Hazel, and their trust in our product speaks volumes on Hazel’s abilities and its reliability when it comes to enhancing the quality of fresh produce.”

Brooks Tropicals was the first grower to use Hazel Tech products to extend the shelf-life of the fresh produce that the company harvests. As noted in a press release, the supplier wanted to explore USDA-funded Hazel Technologies’ options in quality advancements for its extensive portfolio of tropical fruit. Overall, Brooks found that its starfruit in particular benefited from the solution, leading them to trial Hazel 100™.

After incorporating the Hazel 100 solution into its supply chain, Brooks Tropicals was able to extend its starfruit’s shelf-life by eight days, in addition to helping the fruit retain exterior and interior color for longer. The success of this trail has led to additional academic studies, including the Department of Horticultural Science at the University of Florida, which completed extensive research with Hazel products on seven different tropical fruit commodities within the last year.

“Over the last five years, we have seen consistent results with Hazel on our starfruit,” added Peter Leifermann, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Brooks Tropicals. “The additional week added to the fruit’s shelf-life has allowed us to ship and sell our starfruit to more consumers across the United States.”

Founded in the early 1900s, Brooks Tropicals started as a father-son duo growing avocados, grapefruit, limes, and mangos. Over the years, the company continued to expand and began transporting avocados to New York City in 1928. The Homestead, Florida-based grower is now a grower/packer/shipper of over a dozen tropical commodities including starfruit, SlimCado^® avocados, Caribbean Red^® papayas, limes, passion fruit, and dragon fruit.