Freeze-dried vegetable powder conquers European market

In recent years domestic consumers have become used to a variety of vegetable and fruit powder products. Among them is Quang Thanh freeze-dried vegetable powder, a product of Thien Nhien Viet Export-Import Co., Ltd which has become more and more popular.

Quang Thanh freeze-dried vegetable powder is now present in twenty-eight foreign markets including Europe, Taiwan and Japan.

Ms. Nguyen Ngoc Huong, Manager of Thien Nhien Viet Export-Import Co., Ltd and winner of Agro Start-up Contest 2019 said with a desire to create something unique and with a desire to bring Vietnamese agricultural products to the world she chose leafy greens such as pennywort, heartleaf, perilla and moringa as specific Vietnamese vegetables which contain many different nutrients but are difficult to be preserved and processed.

From the beginning Ms. Ngoc Huong built a 10,000 square-meter farm for cultivating safe and clean vegetables in Cu Chi district (Ho Chi Minh City). This was an important step to produce high-quality vegetable powder because only fresh and safe vegetables can draw customers to the product.

Vegetables here are biologically grown, undergoing a closed production process involving no pesticides, no herbicides and no chemicals. Instead, organic compost is used to improve soil fertility, creating biomass for healthy soil and ensuring safety standards in terms of metal and microbiological residues. That way, vegetables can grow better; there is a small chance of being vulnerable to pests and diseases while nutritional contents are higher.          

Ms. Ngoc Huong initially made freeze-dried powder from pennywort because the regenerative plant can be harvested every 30 to 50 days, whenever their leaves are suitable for making powder.           

"Pennywort is a vegetable of many benefits. The quality of conventionally-cultivated pennywort sold in the market was not guaranteed so I wanted to make a clean and safe product from organically-grown pennywort which could be used as an alternative to fresh pennywort," said Ms. Huong.

Within six hours after harvesting, pennywort leaves should be sorted, washed and transferred to a freeze-drying process for 24-36 hours under a low temperature between 15-20 ^oC.

Ms. Ngoc Huong and her colleagues learned from advanced freeze-drying techniques applied in many countries all over the world, in particular from the way the Japanese make green tea powder. From that they developed their own technique with freeze-drying and low-temperature grinding.

"Drying and grinding are the most time-consuming and most highly complex stages. If the length of drying is too short the moisture in vegetables will be too high to be moved to grinding. Additionally, it will also pose a risk during transportation or circulation in the market because the products may be harmful to consumers as molds thrive on moisture. If the length of drying is too long the freshness of vegetables will no longer be maintained," Ms. Ngoc Huong explained.

In addition, the grinding stage also plays an important role. The company applies low-temperature techniques using stone mortars for grinding. This technology is not new but superior for producing high-quality vegetable powder.

Vegetables here are ground by granite stone mortars which help reduce heat generation during processing without denaturing vegetables while radically eliminating the risk of metal residues in the finished product and making vegetable powder as good as fresh vegetables.

After six years in business the Quang Thanh freeze-dried vegetable powder product line is now diversified with a wide range of products. These products have been put up for sale at conventional stores, at organic shops and at showrooms and exhibitions. The company's production line can produce 1.5-2 tons of freeze dried vegetable powder everyday depending on the market demand. Quang Thanh freeze-dried vegetable powder can meet consumer tastes and conquer numerous highly-demanding markets thanks to its various usage possibilities, flexibility and convenience.