Living Foods

This page profiles Living Foods Ltd, a family-run New Zealand grower and processor of fresh-cut baby leaf salads, sprouts and watercress. Established in 1993, the business operates its primary processing site near Auckland Airport in Māngere and a secondary operation, South Fresh, in Upper Moutere, Tasman. The company highlights its role in introducing fresh-cut salads to the New Zealand market and describes multi-decade experience in sprout cultivation and salad processing. Product scope and sourcing Living Foods focuses on FRESHcut baby leaf mixes, a variety of lettuce types and specialty greens. Key product lines include baby spinach, rocket, beet, chard, Asian greens, frisée, mustards, kale and a range of butterhead, frilled, oak, batavia, cos and heirloom lettuce varieties. Sprout production covers alfalfa, mung beans/bean sprouts, snow pea shoots, mixed bean combinations, radish, onion and broccoli sprouts. Watercress is produced in a dedicated, covered facility at the Māngere processing site. Farms supplying the business are located around the Māngere airport peninsula, extend into the Waikato in the North, and around Nelson/Upper Moutere in the South, with outdoor year‑round growing where regional conditions permit. Processing, safety and traceability Living Foods emphasizes food safety and traceability as core operational features. Both Auckland and Nelson facilities are presented as operating under a fully accredited New Zealand HACCP food safety programme, and the company reports an on-site laboratory for ongoing testing from field through to finished product. The business states it rarely outsources produce, relying primarily on its own quality systems to maintain traceability down to the specific block of land. Processing steps described include batch quality checks, triple washing with a sanitising system designed to leave no residues, gentle spin drying and automated vertical form-fill weighing machines that produce sealed “pillow pack” bags. Quality assurance and certifications The company affirms commitment to the NZGAP Quality Assurance Programme on its farms and highlights internal testing capacity via its on-site laboratory. These elements are presented to support claims of rigorous food safety practices and product quality control across cultivation and processing stages. Relevance for communal food provisioning For operators assessing suppliers for communal living or co-living food programs, Living Foods presents itself as a vertically integrated, regionally based supplier with year-round production capabilities, an extensive fresh-leaf and sprout product range, documented food safety systems and traceability processes.