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Florette Baby Leaf - Pentaflor Hortícola, Spain
Executive Summary
Key areas of good practice:
Staff
- Hortícola employs a large number of workers on fixed-term contracts. The farm offers substantial assistance to all staff, with issues from application of work permits, to organising travels arrangements, providing benefits to both the staff and the company.
Management
- Excellent communication lines between Pentaflor Hortícola and Florette enable quality issues to be addressed and high standards maintained.
Operations
- The incidence of diseases in the plants has been reduced by altering seed rates during certain times of the year and according to weather conditions. This limits the amount of plant protection products being used, whilst maintaining raw material quality.
- Salads are one of the few items on the McDonalds menu which are not cooked prior to consumption. With this in mind a pre-harvest risk assessment is completed before salad crops are harvested, minimising any potential food safety hazards.
Additional areas of good practice:
Operations
- The farm’s greenhouses have automatic sensors which control the environmental conditions which are best suited to crop growth and disease reduction, thus minimising necessary inputs.
- Pentaflor Hortícola has made concrete bunded areas which are used for filling the crop sprayer. Any spillages can be captured, thus avoiding any pollution risk.
Pollution
- The business supports the Milagro XXI Foundation which helps the local community with several different projects and social development schemes.
