Crunchy lettuce

Crunchy Lettuce

Iceberg lettuce and cos lettuce are popular types that achieve high consumption levels around the world. However, food retailers and processing companies continually demand innovation. Our breeding team rose to the challenge to combine the best traits of both types in a single lettuce in order to surprise consumers with a new product: Crunchy Lettuce.

Combination of strengths

Rijk Zwaan has expanded the lettuce range by crossing cos lettuce with iceberg lettuce. Crunchy Lettuce combines the specific strengths of each type:

• Crunchy bite
• Sweet taste
• Excellent shelf life
• Intensely green leaves throughout the entire head

Benefits

Crunchy Lettuce offers advantages for growers, foodservice customers, processing companies, retailers and consumers alike. This makes it an interesting alternative to iceberg lettuce and cos lettuce. Benefits of Crunchy Lettuce include:

• Suitable for mechanical harvesting, both as heads and as loose leaves
• Suitable for clean hydroponic growing (on water)
• Strong leaf edges
• Remains crunchy even under warm or acidic conditions
• Extremely versatile in terms of preparation and uses
• Extension to the lettuce category and new positioning help to boost profits

Rijk Zwaan supports and advises growers and customers in terms of production, processing and marketing.

We inspire consumers to eat more healthy vegetables, not least thanks to the special website bursting with preparation tips, background information and recipes for consumers: lovemysalad.com.

Expanded range

This new lettuce has been trialled successfully in various production regions and is available in numerous countries. Rijk Zwaan is continuously developing new varieties such as a baby Crunchy Lettuce, for example.