Mills Family selling the whole leaf
Salinas: New lettuce product enters the retail market
By DANIA AKKAD
from Monterey Herald Salinas Bureau

Bagged whole-leaf lettuce from Mills Family Farms may soon be in the supermarket.

After selling its lettuce leaves wholesale to caterers, hospitals and schools for more than eight years, the Salinas-based produce company announced this week that its leaves are now available in bags for shoppers.

Four types of lettuce -- green leaf, red leaf, romaine and green cascade mix® -- will be available in the line and can be used in sandwiches, for wraps or simply in salad, said Dave Mills, senior vice president of Mills Family Farms.

"Whole leaf had issues on the packaging end," Mills said. "We can't just dump it into the bag. We want a product that we are proud of."

Now that the company has got the bags, it hopes retailers will take them to the shelves. Next week, bags of Mills Family Farm's Wholeaves® will be on display at the Fresh Cut and Floral Council Expo in Anaheim.

"We are very hopeful and we believe that it is a high-end, high-quality product," Mills said. "We're hoping that (retailers) will agree with us."

Mills said his company's product distinguishes itself because the leaves are torn from the lettuce core, rather than cut, leaving vital tissue intact and keeping the lettuce fresh for longer periods of time. He said it would compete with only one other ready-made whole-leaf product on the market, made by Misionero Vegetables of Salinas.

"It's kind of pioneering a new frontier," Mills said. "It's exciting times."