Have a good week!

Fruitful Office team

In more ways than one would think, it turns out. Fresh fruit is a natural and perishable good which means that its quality can vary tremendously from week to week. Fruit is at risk from the varying weather elements (sun, rain, wind, frost) whilst growing, the correct timing for the fruit-picking, and the handling of the fruit during sorting and transit from our suppliers. And if that was not enough, to make our life even more challenging each type of fruit ripens at different speeds and at different temperatures – Fruitful Office includes up to 20 different types of fruit in its seasonal fruit baskets throughout the year! Once we receive the fruit we have to ensure that it is kept, sorted and handled in the right way so that we are able to deliver our baskets at just the right level of ripeness for eating on the day.

Therefore, implementing robust and demanding quality management processes that meet ISO standards helps us serve our clients to a very high and consistent level – week-in week-out. Here are a few practical examples of this in action:

• Our buyer has strict requirements for each fruit variety he purchases and is able to trace the provenance of all fruit reaching each client on each delivery day
• Our full time Quality Assurance manager carries out strict quality checks of incoming fruit and the ripeness of existing fruit
• Our carefully trained packing team follows clear quality control checks for ‘accepting’ or ‘rejecting’ different fruit
• Every week we have a company Taste Panel where we all taste the fruit we are delivering to clients and provide scores on ‘taste’, ‘appearance’, and ‘ripeness’
• When we receive customer feedback we record it, assess it and then take steps to correct the issue internally
• Every year we perform a Customer Feedback Questionnaire across our entire client base to assess our service across all aspects

We could go on and on, but you get the picture. Providing a quality product and service is what our business was built on and we want to ensure we get better at it each year as we grow.

And bananas certainly pack a punch. Weighing 150 grams and boasting 140 kcal a medium-sized banana is a good source of potassium, tryptophan, vitamin B6 and fibre and they also contain vitamin C and flavonoids.

Nutritionist and dietician Mariana Costenla says: “Bananas are one of those perfect fruits that nature offers us. They are healthy, sweet and tasty and can be a great ally when it comes to fighting hunger.”

And bananas are definitely healthier than other snacks. “Their flesh is sweet and dense so eating a banana can keep you satisfied until your next meal and prevent you from eating other foods full of sugar and fat, like crackers, for example, which can easily give you twice the calories.”

Fruity benefits
Fruitful Office’s 2012 client research, which quizzed 165 client organisations representing a total 11,550 office workers, about their staff’s fruity eating habits, also revealed that having fresh fruit available in the office improves staff wellbeing. Over 95 per cent of Fruitful’s clients believe their staff valued ‘highly’ or ‘very highly’ having fruit provided to them in the office.

Over 55 per cent said having fruit at the workplace has improved life in the office through the avoidance of unhealthy snacks and 52 per cent through feeling more valued by their employers. There was also a significant positive impact on morale and productivity – and fewer sick days.

Commenting on the results, Fruitful Office director Vasco de Castro said: “Our annual survey shows that in today’s hectic working environment, when people don’t always manage to eat healthily, the availability of fresh fruit at the desk is really appreciated. A banana epitomises this approach as it’s an easy grab-and-go snack that you can eat at your desk.”

Apart from safety issues, watercress is a very rich plant. It has great quantities of antioxidants and flavonoids, famous for their effects on our immune system. It also has huge amounts of vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium and potassium.

You can use watercress in almost every dish. It is delicious when consumed fresh, but also perfect in salads, soups and sandwiches. Those delicious little leafs are dark green and taste a little spicy, so adding some citrus fruits such as some orange segments or lemon juice can complement the taste perfectly.

Be healthy,

Mariana Costenla

Nutritionist

One of the principles of food legislation consists in providing consumers with information that allows them to make the right choice. But how do consumers know that what they read actually represents a healthy food? Are they motivated by the nutritional information or are they motivated just by the price or family habits or even the flavour?

So what can you find on a food label? Nutrition facts such as calories, total protein, total fat including polyunsaturated, monounsaturated, saturated and trans fat and total carbohydrates including dietary fibre and sugars are essential. Other nutrition facts such as total cholesterol and sodium are also fundamental but there are other facts, desired ones like vitamins and minerals which can be present depending on the food. Of all these nutrients there are a few which you want their values to be as close to zero as possible.  They are the saturated and trans fats, sugar, cholesterol and sodium. If you stick to healthy products you will always be in good health.

Be healthy,

Mariana Costenla

According to the World Cancer Research Fund’s head of education, Kate Mendoza, more than one form of cancer could potentially be tackled with the help of fruit and veg.

She stated: “They probably reduce risk of a number of types of cancer, including cancers of the oesophagus and mouth, pharynx and larynx.”

However, the benefits of munching on fruit do not end there, with Ms Mendoza adding: “People who eat plenty of fruit and vegetables are also less likely to be overweight.”

When it comes to healthy eating, Tam Fry, spokesman for the National Obesity Forum, recently noted that people could try to tackle problems relating to weight by adopting a family-oriented approach to obesity.

Official figures show that the number of people eating the recommended amount of fruit and veg has actually dropped in recent years, reports the Daily Mail.

The typical amount the average adult eats has fallen from 3.3 portions a day in 2006 to 3.2 three years later.

Eating your daily dose of fruit is easy if you have an office fruit basket at work you can dip into over the course of the day.

Munching on two or three treats a day from the office fruit delivery is an easy way to make sure are eating a healthy diet.

You could try an apple, which are rich in the antioxidant pectin and eyesight-boosting vitamin B, or a banana – a great source of potassium, which can help control blood pressure.

New research from the US has revealed apples have “incredible” health benefits, which can keep heart disease at bay.

In the study, 80 women aged between 45 and 65 ate 75g of dried prunes every day for a year, while the same number ate the same amount of dried apple over the period, in addition to their normal food.

Study leader Dr Bahram Arjmandi, from the Department of Nutrition, Food and Exercise Sciences at Florida State University, said: “Incredible changes in the apple-eating women happened by six months – they experienced a 23 per cent decrease in low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, which is known as the ‘bad cholesterol’.”

The women also had lower levels of bio-markers – such as C-reactive protein – associated with heart disease.

“Everyone can benefit from consuming apples,” Dr Arjmandi said.

Recently, a study by researchers from Fox Chase Cancer Center in the US revealed that vitamin A – which is found in apples – could aid breast cancer therapy as it impacts on cell growth, proliferation and survival.

Researchers from the South American country have managed to develop an effective way of using the fibre from these fruits to create a new generation of plastics for use in automotives.

The plastics are stronger, lighter and more environmentally friendly than others in use at the moment and they could well be utilised to develop cars in the future.

Study leader Dr Alcides Leao, talking at the National Meeting and Exposition of the American Chemical Society, said that while the fibres originate from delicate fruits, such as bananas, they are super strong when turned into plastics.

“We believe that a lot of car parts, including dashboards, bumpers [and] side panels, will be made of nano-sized fruit fibres in the future,” he added.

Recently, another set of scientists in Brazil, from the Sao Paolo Research Foundation, said minced banana peels could remove metal contamination from water, meaning the yellow fruit could help out with purification.

A new study by the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) has revealed nearly 80,000 cancers could be prevented every year in Britain if people had a more healthy lifestyle.

The charity estimated the number of breast and bowel cancer cases could nearly be halved, with reductions of 42 and 43 per cent respectively, if people were healthier.

Simple changes, such as eating a healthy diet, exercising more regularly and maintaining a healthy weight, could all help prevent cancers, the WCRF said.

“It is distressing that even in 2011 people are dying unnecessarily from cancers that could be prevented through maintaining a healthy weight, diet, physical activity and other lifestyle factors,” said Professor Martin Wiseman, medical and scientific adviser for the WCRF.

Today (February 4th), is World Cancer Day, which aims to raise awareness of the illness around the globe.

You could improve your health by eating snacks from the office fruit basket, such as plums, which are rich in antioxidants that reduce the risk of cancer.