Our Factory
Interested in partnering with Silk Grass Farms and learning more about our food-processing facility? Let’s talk!
About Our Factory
Silk Grass Farms built its 130,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art food processing facility in 2022. This factory enables us to process foods from the Silk Grass family of farms as well as partner farms from across Belize, producing the freshest, highest-quality products possible.
Silk Grass Farms invested in this multimillion-dollar facility for a variety of reasons:
Commitment to product quality: We are dedicated to producing the highest-quality products. This dedication begins with our ecologically aligned sustainable farming practices, which yield juicier, healthier, more nutrient-dense foods. Thanks to the high-tech, world-class equipment in our factory, our production processes guarantee that fresh delicious flavor makes its way from our farm to your tastebuds.
Commitment to our workers: We aim to provide for employees, contractors, and visitors a safe and healthy workplace, safeguarding the health, wellness and safety of everyone affected by our operations.
Commitment to Belize: Silk Grass Farms believes the natural abundance of Belize can be a driver of economic sustainability and prosperity for our nation. By partnering with and processing the crops of our fellow Belizean farmers, we hope to use our state-of-the-art processing facility to benefit not just Silk Grass Farms but the entire Belizean agricultural community.
Factory Capabilities
Our facility is equipped with several types of equipment capable of neutralizing microbes and food-borne pathogens, extending shelf life, and retaining the natural taste, texture, and nutrient value of our produce.
This equipment includes:
HPP (High-Pressure Processing): As the name implies, HPP pasteurizes with the use of pressure. HPP applies up to 87,000 psi of pressure, neutralizing microbes and pathogens, extending shelf life, and retaining the natural taste, texture, and nutrient value of a wide variety of pre-packaged foods without damaging proteins and enzymes. This method is especially useful to retain flavor and nutritional value in the processing and packaging of meat and seafood.
Monoblock (tube-in-tube pasteurizer): The Monoblock pasteurizes using heat for aseptic processing and packaging of fruit and vegetable purees and juices (single-strength or concentrate; clear or cloudy). Five-liter bag size minimum; best for bulk ingredients.
Retort: The Retort also pasteurizes using heat but can go to a higher temperature than the Monoblock. It is used for high-heat sterilization of consumer-packaged goods (CPG) in glass jars, cans, or pouches.
IceGen: The IceGen converts liquids into a uniformly frozen slurry, preserving the taste, aroma, color and overall quality of the product for weeks in transit without additional refrigeration.
Interested in learning more about the capabilities of our food-processing facility?
Safety + Sustainability
As stated in our Food Safety Policy, “Our primary objective is to manufacture and distribute products of the very highest standards. We will incorporate in [our] manufacturing process a high degree of food safety culture through GMP [Good Manufacturing Process] and Food Safety training and will ensure that all foods produced are fully complied with regulatory and international standards.”
Safe Quality Food (SQF) Certification: SQF demonstrates the highest level of food safety and quality control. Silk Grass Farms' factory received its SQF certification in 2023.
Health + Safety: Silk Grass Farms produces high-quality, ultra-safe food for positive social, economic, and environmental impact. All employees are responsible for producing safe products by building a culture of food safety and quality. Our goal is to keep improving our food safety management system to eliminate risks from supplier to customer. View our Health + Safety Policy.
Renewable Energy: We have installed a large-scale (2MW DC/1.5MW AC) solar array to provide power to our processing facility. This array is designed to power 75% to 80% of our operational activities.
Food Categories
With our large-scale facility and broad scope of world-class equipment, Silk Grass Farms is uniquely positioned to process a vast array of fruits, vegetables, and rhizomes into high-quality, shelf-stable products. Each product must meet the “finished goods specification” outlined for that particular item. The process to produce these finished goods must be within the “guardrails” that SQF outlines.
The food categories we are equipped to process include (in alphabetical order):
Avocado
Beans
Carrots
Citrus (lime, lemon, grapefruit, oranges, varietal citrus)
Coconuts
Cucumber
Dragon fruit
Ginger
Mango
Meats
Passionfruit
Pineapple
Seafood
Soursop
Sugar cane
Watermelon
Yellow ginger (turmeric)
Papaya