New winter range claims to be first time LED technology has been used to expand British tomato season on commercial scale
Sainsbury’s has said it is the first major retailer to grow British tomatoes at this time of year using LED lights.
The UK’s third largest supermarket said it has extended the British tomato season with the largest range of UK-grown tomatoes available through the winter months.
Its new Taste the Difference winter range includes new yellow cherry tomato Sunglow, large vine tomato Jubilee, cherry tomato on the vine Vittoria, and a Best of British mixed colour cherry pack.
The news comes as Sainsbury’s continues to expand its British offering as part of its 20×20 Sustainability Plan, in which it pledged to double the amount of British food its sells by 2020.
Nigel Bartle, chairman of the British Tomato Growers Association said: “Growers have been working tirelessly hard both with researchers and Sainsbury’s to extend the season and this year thanks to LED technology will be able to produce more fresh British tomatoes than ever before.”
“This is the first time a large-scale commercial nursery has used this technology in the UK.”
Sainsbury’s product technologist, Melissa Jones, said: “By working closely with our growers we’ve been able to extend the British tomato season – which takes a lot of skill and investment from our growers.”
She said growers used a mixture of sodium and LED lights to help plants to grow and tomatoes to ripen.
“It’s important we offer British products when they taste their best and we know our customers care about buying British too. This range of tomatoes is another example of growing more of our favourite fruit and veg closer to home,” added Jones.