Background
Micro Acres Wales sell an award-winning range of microgreens, edible flowers, and mushrooms, which they grow in a vertical farm located in Pontyclun, Rhondda Cynon Taf.
Established during lockdown in 2021, by husband-and-wife team Chris and Donna Graves, Micro Acres Wales initially started out as a hobby but soon became a means for Chris to follow an alternative career path following the diagnosis of ‘ataxia’, a health condition which affects his co-ordination, balance and speech.
ZERO2FIVE has previously supported Micro Acres Wales with food safety management when they were in the initial stages of launching the business from their domestic garage.
When Micro Acres Wales moved to a much larger factory unit, located in a former mine explosives storage facility, ZERO2FIVE once again provided assistance.
Support from ZERO2FIVE
ZERO2FIVE supported Micro Acres Wales to update their Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) Plan to make it suitable for growing microgreens in their new unit. This included conducting a hazard analysis, determining critical control points to prevent food safety hazards, and establishing monitoring procedures and corrective actions when issues occur.
Micro Acres Wales were also mentored on the layout of their new vertical farm. This assistance ensured the optimisation of their production process flow to avoid microbial contamination between seeds and harvested microgreens, and to make sure that utilities were located in the right place.
Benefits of the support
Following the support from ZERO2FIVE, Micro Acres Wales successfully secured a food hygiene rating of five from Environmental Health for their new production unit.
As a result of moving into a bigger unit, the company has grown their output of microgreens by 50% with the potential to more than double it. They have also expanded their product range to include mushrooms and edible flowers.
ZERO2FIVE are providing Micro Acres Wales with ongoing support for these new products. This includes further help with HACCP and product testing support for pressed edible flowers and dehydrated mushrooms and microgreens that will reduce the company’s waste and increase profitability.
Chris and Donna Graves, Owners, Micro Acres Wales:
“ZERO2FIVE have supported us at crucial points of our business journey, from startup to expansion. Their expertise, knowledge and understanding has been invaluable and their HACCP support gave us confidence in our production processes. As a relatively new industry and manufacturing process here in Wales, ZERO2FIVE were comprehensive in their support, problem solving and guidance.”
“With continued support from ZERO2FIVE, we will be adding to our product range and reducing our product waste. There are exciting times ahead for this family business that started with a single tray on a windowsill.”
