1 Jul 2010 --- Tropical Foods, a food manufacturer that specializes in raw and roasted nuts, dried fruit and snack mixes, has re-launched their popular organic line, Organic Acres, with new corn-based packaging.

Organic Acres contains five organic mixes, specially blended to provide a naturally nutritious snack. The line also contains dried fruits and both raw and roasted/salted nuts. Products are available in bulk or a new corn-based retail package. Tropical Foods has seen success with the line with the new packaging and the re-sealable, portable organic snacks.

“We are using corn-based containers as a way to serve our custom mixes in a more environmentally appealing manner. It has a smaller packaging footprint,” said Chad Hartman, Brand Manager for Tropical Foods.

With traditional plastic packaging using an estimated 200,000 barrels of oil a day in the United States, corn-based packaging has gained popularity with consumers for both environmental and political reasons. The packaging material will break down under certain conditions into harmless natural compounds. That could take pressure off the mounting landfills, since plastics already take up 25 percent of dumps by volume.

Seven out of ten consumers surveyed said that they’d be willing to pay up to 20% more for organics in environmentally friendly packaging.

“We pride ourselves on satisfying customers’ needs with organic fresh mixes and these containers allow us to extend that same freshness to our packaging,” Hartman said.

York’s Harvest, Organic Acres contains almonds, both raw and roasted/salted, cashews roasted and salted, diced pineapple and walnuts. The organic mixes consist of Awesome Antioxidant Mix, Fruitberry Basket, Fancy Mixed Nuts, Berry-ific, and Just Nutty.