SALES of trays of salad leaves made by an entrepreneurial Yorkshire farmer have soared after an academic's warning ofthe dangers of bagged salads received widespread publicity.
Living Salads, set up by Andrew Johnson in September 2005 after he lost his job working for a global salad producer in Portugal, has seen sales of its packs of baby leaves, like red chard, rocket and pak choi, to six major supermarket chains, rise 40
per cent.
It comes after the media coverage given to research led by Imperial College professor Gadi Frankel, who warned that cases of food poisoning, such as salmonella, from bagged pre-washed salads were "likely to rise".
Mr Johnson, managing director, said: "I've taken an order from one major supermarket retailer that was up 46 per cent from last week, with similar rises from other retailers."
With light watering, the salads will last for up to 10 days on window sills, Mr Johnson said. The firm's turnover was £500,000 last year and is expected to reach £800,000 this year.
The Wyton firm, near Hull, was set up when Mr Johnson was out of work and his wife was pregnant with their second child.
"I had a sort of Eureka moment that comes out of quiet desperation. The redundancy pushed an idea at the back of my mind to the front. We'd been eating wild rocket straight out of the fields while living in Portugal, and the difference in taste was significant," he said.
"It wasn't until we returned to England for a dinner party that I realised the difference in quality between just-picked leaves and bagged salads."
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