Fresh Express

Fresh Express is the pioneer and category leader of retail packaged, ready-to-eat (washed) bagged salads, leafy greens, salad kits, coleslaws and fresh-cut vegetables/fruit, having created the bagged-salad category in 1989 with its Keep-Crisp breathable bag. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Chiquita Brands (acquired 2005 for ~$855M) and operates regional processing plants close to growing regions, running a highly time-condensed field-to-pack operation (24-72 hours harvest to shelf) under strict cold-chain and food-safety regimes. Its core operation is high-volume primary produce processing — receiving, trimming, cutting, washing, drying, mixing, weighing/filling and bagging — which is predominantly bulk-flow rather than piece-level dexterous manipulation; genuine contact-rich tasks are limited to the handling/coring of whole heads at infeed.