Sustainably produced, quality tomatoes for great taste
The Mutti family have understood the meaning of quality from the very start. Our quality won us the esteemed Diploma di Medaglia d’Oro di 1° grado -prize all the way back in the year 1911! In fact, you can still see it in the classic Mutti logo! After this, pursuing excellence in our tomatoes has been our only goal.
Guardians of the natural flavor
For us, quality does not only mean premium raw ingredients, healthy fields, sustainable farming, and safe and good products. More than anything, it means to deeply respect everyone involved in the production chain, because our suppliers live close to us and working side by side with them comes natural to us. Making sure they, their families, and all of our workers are safe and doing well is absolutely essential.
Our relationships with our farmers are set up with the intention to be long-lasting, of course provided that quality requirements continue to be met. Despite our high standards, the majority of farmers who start working with Mutti continue to work with us!
By widening our quality mindset to include our entire production chain and the environment, we also make sure that coming generations get to enjoy great tomatoes.
Quality starts in finding the most suitable location for the tomato
Together with our farmers, we make sure that each variety of tomato is grown in an environment best suited to its needs. The right conditions are a crucial ingredient for a tasty tomato.
Our farmers have experience with all tomato varieties and based on that knowledge they choose the varieties that are most suitable for the soil (less fertile soils need more vigorous plants), climatic conditions (more leafy varieties require ventilated areas) and harvest periods (early-season varieties are more resistant to cold snaps).
Sustainable production promotes good agricultural practices. This includes large crop rotations, the return of the mineralized organic matter to the soils through manure and the use of soil analyses to know that it has the exact nutritional balance that is optimal for the tomatoes.
These recommendations not only respect and protect the characteristics of the soil but are also the prerequisites for a successful tomato cultivation.
Each plot of land is also geo-referenced and subjected to an environmental qualification process in order to exclude plots with a medium- or high-risk profile as they are located near potential sources of pollution.
At the end of summer, tomatoes travel to the factory, which lies an average of an 60 miles away from all fields. When they get to the factory, the tomatoes are put through rigorous quality testing and self-control measures, which we have developed with external product quality certifiers.
Thanks to all of this, we can guarantee that the quality we speak of is also something you really taste in our products.
Certified quality
Since 1999 Mutti has been certified for integrated production. This technique also known by the acronym ICM, Integrated Crop Management, is a “low input” production technique providing a greater protection of agricultural producers, consumers and the environment, which is based on:
- enhancement of all agronomic interventions, such as, crop rotation (tomato every 4 years on the same plot of land)
- calibration of nutrient supplies based on the needs of the crop and the natural supply of soil nutrients (soil analyses)
- the use of highly efficient irrigation water distribution systems, such as drip irrigation, and systems for monitoring crop-specific water needs and water available in the soil.
Each year the farmer receives a Sustainable Production specification by Mutti that covers all aspects of cultivation, from soil preparation to harvest. The focus is put in particular on nutrients, irrigation, weed control and defense against harmful insects and diseases affecting the berry or the leaf system. This specification reflects the integrated production specification of the Emilia-Romagna Region (certified by the stamp on Mutti Products). In addition, farmers have access to weekly bulletins describing the phytosanitary situation of the different territories.
Did you know?
Tomato loads entering production go through around 96 000 tests and analyses yearly. Before each individual tomato gets processed, it also has been checked out three times by human eyes and high tech lasers.
The products which come out of the factory get checked by third-party laboratories with around 35 000 tests. Adding to that, our own quality control performs nearly 300 000 checks per annum. We do this because we want to promise our customers only the very best Italian tomatoes.
The BRC and IFS certificates we have been awarded are proof that our production methods and production chain stands up to international scrutiny. These data are acquired in the ISO 22005 certified traceability system which allows to precisely identify the growers and the plots accredited and allowed to deliver tomatoes to our products.
