Production of Fifth Range Products

Vegetables and fruit differ from other food products for the quick change of their quality characteristics in the elapsing time between harvesting and consumption, the large variety diversity, the involvement of all the senses of the buyer when deciding what to buy, the general feeling of healthiness by the consumer.
The trading of these fruit and vegetable products ready to eat, nowadays allows producers to move from a quite generic offer of perishable raw food to quality products that are also steady, adequately described and commensurate to the individual and collective needs of the modern consumer.
The major category of suppliers of fifth range fruit and vegetable products worldwide are the industries, followed by organizations of producers; wholesalers of fifth range products and retailers for fifth range products, after a decreasing period (in 2003-2006), are now seeing again and increase of the fifth range products sector.
Even though the traditional segment of the fruit and vegetable sector in years has been considered in a deadlock, we actually have seen a strong dynamism in the use of vegetables in the diet and in particular for fourth and fifth range products: while traditional food habits used to use vegetables only as a side dish, or a complement to the meal, nowadays they are increasingly used as single meals, above all in Northern Europe countries.