The only supplier that has Contra-Seasonal production capability with processing plants in the USA and Mexico.
The Eckert Advantage
Reliability of Supply
We are the only IQF pepper supplier in the industry that has two production seasons each year between our processing plants in California and Culiacan, Mexico. This allows us to offer customers more reliability and flexibility of supply.
Fire Roasting
Unlike the industry standard of just burning the outer skin, we core and open our peppers before the roasting begins. This allows the flames to roast the inside as well as the outside creating a deeper, more flavorful product.
Fruit or Vegetable
Technically, a bell pepper is a fruit because it started as a flower and contains the seeds of the plant. However, the culinary world considers it a vegetable so most people think of bell peppers that way. Other fruits that people associate as being vegetables include tomatoes, cucumbers, and peas.
Health Benefits
Flash freezing allows us to harvest the fruit at its peak for freshness, flavor, and nutritional value. This method also locks in water-soluble vitamins like C and B that otherwise would dissipate over time.
Experience is Key
Being in business for over 75 years, we have perfected the art and the science of producing the highest quality IQF bell peppers available in the industry today. Our grower partners operate family farms that have been in business for many generations.
Growing Season
While some varieties are direct seeded, most of our bell pepper plants are transplanted from seedlings that were germinated in a greenhouse. This allows for healthy plants, enables us to start the growing season sooner than a direct seed, and helps conserve water.
Growing Cycle
From transplanting in the fields to the first pick of fruit can be as long as 90 days for green peppers and 130 days for red and yellow peppers. Like any fruit or vegetable, many factors come into play during the growing cycle.
Grown in California
Operating in California has its challenges but peppers require a lot of sunlight, warm days, and soil temperatures above 75 degrees Fahrenheit, which is why California is still the largest growing region in North America for bell peppers.
Hand Harvesting
When harvesting by hand, growers have the opportunity to pick more than once because the plant will continue to produce fruit, but at a declining rate. Hand-picking is typical for red and yellow bell peppers because these colors have thinner walls which can be damaged by machines. It also allows a grower to get higher yields per acre if labor is available.
Mechanical Harvesting
When harvesting mechanically, machines pull the plant out of the ground on the first pass and remove the fruit from the stem, ending the plant growing cycle. This type of harvesting is typical for green bell peppers, jalapenos, and poblanos because they have thicker walls and can withstand the forces of harvesting machines.
Color Variety
Green peppers are actually a premature fruit. When left on the plant longer, they will turn a different color depending on the variety. All red bell peppers start as green first.
Flash Freezing
How a bell pepper is frozen and handled after harvest is critical. If the fruit is not flash frozen quickly, cell structure can be negatively impacted. Likewise, if the frozen pepper products are not kept at a sub-zero temperature during storage, the fruit’s cells can actually continue to age.