Almeda & Tosca: Ensuring Efficiency and Sustainability in Fresh-Cut Supply Chains

Almeda operates in Italy’s ready-to-eat food sector, producing fresh-cut products where handling, timing and consistency are part of everyday operations. With over 50 years of experience in the agri-food industry, the company combines industrial production with a focus on product quality and freshness.

Built around reusable from the start

While many companies move to reusable packaging over time, Almeda structured its operations around it from the beginning.

Reusable crates are used across transport, storage and handling, moving through the different stages of production and distribution as part of a single system.

Keeping daily operations seamless

In fresh-cut supply chains, maintaining steady flows is a practical challenge. Packaging availability, handling and disposal can all affect day-to-day operations.

Almeda works with a pooling model, where crates are managed externally in terms of availability, collection and rotation. This reduces the need to manage packaging internally and helps keep operations consistent.

At the same time, using reusable assets reduces reliance on single-use materials and the associated waste.

What changes when the system changes

What changes when packaging stops being something you manage and starts being part of how your operation runs? The full case study takes a closer look.