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Freezing Produce for a New Market: Sharing the lessons learned from Determining New Market Channels for Local Producers

Event date/time: 
Wednesday, September 30, 2020 - 5:30pm to 7:00pm
Event Type: 
Online

Are you an agricultural producer or food processor?  Have you ever thought about selling frozen foods through the retail market?

Join us in this 1.5 hour webinar to learn the basics of freezing produce for the retail market.

The collaborating team includes food scientists and economists from UMass Amherst and the team at the Greenfield Community Development Corporations Food Processing Center. During this session we will share the interdisciplinary work that includes:

  • Results from the consumer market research experiments measuring consumers’ willingness-to-pay for frozen retail produce (blueberries)
  • Provide a general overview of the overall operation of the frozen food process used at the FPC using optimized process conditions for the liquid nitrogen water fall freezing unit
  • Discuss the approach used in developing a Preventive Controls compliant Food Safety Plan
  • Share the project cost/returns
  • Share recently developed farm business planning materials, including cost/returns calculator tool, food safety guidance/technical support materials, planned published works (peer review)
Speaker(s) / Instructor(s): 
Amanda J. Kinchla, Extension Associate Professor, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Jill Fitzsimmons, Assistant Research Professor, University of Massachusetts Amherst
How to Participate: 

Virtual Session via Zoom – note we will send the program participation link after registration.

Registration Deadline: 
Sunday, September 20, 2020 - 2:30pm
Contact's name: 
Amanda J. Kinchla
Contact's email: 
This event will be recorded: 
Yes