FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Here you’ll find the most frequently asked questions regarding our products, packaging and production methods.

Questions concerning our products

How do you guarantee the freshness of your products?

C’ZON products are prepared at the site of production less then 48 hours after harvest and then transported by air for optimal freshness.

We constantly monitor and respect the cold chain, and use refrigerated transport and storage.

To guarantee the optimal eating quality of C’ZON products, each one has a Best Before or a Use By date: these shelf lives have been established through rigorous testing and ensure that all C’ZON products can be enjoyed at their best (flavour first and foremost, natural benefits…).

To optimise the preservation of their products, C’ZON focuses on using technical packaging whose properties facilitate optimal preservation, with specific features for each variety of fruit and vegetable. The natural gas exchanges of the fruits and vegetables are regulated and optimised thanks to micro-perforations in the plastic films or bags.

Only the packaging of the C’ZON products is used to optimise preservation of our products: the packaging contains nothing other than the fruits and vegetables; there are no additives or industrial processes used to modify the atmosphere in the packaging.

There are no additives or preservatives. Our products are fresh and natural fruits and vegetables. Like all fresh products, they are rich in vitamins. What’s more, they are packed less than 48 hours after harvesting, so they retain all their nutritional value.
You will find a date on the back of each pack. This will either indicate the ‘use by’ date, after which the fruits or vegetables should not be consumed, or the ‘best before’ date, after which it is not recommended that you consume your fruits or vegetables. These shelf lives have been established through rigorous testing, ensuring that you can enjoy all our products at their best (flavour and texture, nutritional benefits and food safety). Don’t forget to store your C’ZON products in the fridge after purchase: this is the best way to keep them fresh for their entire shelf life.
For C’ZON vegetables, there are two possible cases. Certain vegetables are already washed, sliced etc. and you can cook them directly straight from the pack. Others are prepared but still need to be rinsed before use. Always read the label on the back of the packaging: these products will be marked “rinse with water before cooking”.

We strive to ensure that our customers get the very best out of our vegetables after cooking, not only in terms of flavour, but also in terms of vitamins, texture and appearance.

On each of our products you’ll find a pictogram on the label indicating the best method of cooking your vegetables: microwave oven, boiling, steaming, cooking in a wok or eating raw (snacks). You will also find the recommended cooking time on the back of the packaging. The tests to establish these cooking methods and timings were carried out by Michelin-starred chef Jean Pierre Dargent, guaranteeing that you will enjoy your vegetables at their very best (in taste and texture). They are only recommendations, however: you are of course free to cook them any way you choose, and many of you will be eating them raw!

C’ZON fruits and vegetables are produced without any additives, preservatives, or added protective atmospheres during packaging. In other words, they are subjected to absolutely no processing apart from peeling and cutting, to make your life easier. So if you’d like your children to discover the delicious flavours of fresh fruits and vegetables, C’ZON products are the ideal introduction.

The blends have been carefully developed to ensure that all the vegetables cook perfectly: the thickness of the carrot sticks or slices, the length of the asparagus etc. All the different shapes and sizes of the vegetables have been chosen to ensure that the cooking times indicated on the packaging will allow all the vegetables to be cooked at the same time. So there’s no need to sort through them, just follow the instructions!

We are delighted to be able to tell you that all our products are GMO-free. None of C’ZON’s fruit and vegetables is transgenic. Our products are produced in accordance with our strict specifications, and we ensure that all our producers respect and comply with them. The absence of GMO and transgenic products is part of our fundamental requirements, so you can rest assured that C’ZON products are entirely free of them.

 

Questions concerning our packaging

How does the steam cooking bag function in a microwave oven?
The bag works like a pressure cooker. Simply place it lying down in the microwave, without piercing. The bag will then inflate and fill with steam from the water naturally contained in the vegetables. Any excess steam will escape through the valve, which functions like the valve on a pressure cooker. The vegetables are thus steam cooked under pressure: this guarantees optimal flavour and maximum nutritional value.
Yes, you can eat vegetables cooked in our steaming bags without worrying! The plastic we use to make our bags doesn’t contain Bisphenol A, and more generally our bags comply with all European regulations concerning packaging materials, particularly plastics. They’ve also been subjected to a range of tests at different temperatures to confirm that no substances are transferred from the packaging to the vegetables they contain. You can therefore tuck into your C’ZON vegetables in the sure and certain knowledge that microwave cooking is completely safe.

 

Questions concerning our production methods

Where do C’ZON products come from? Under what conditions are they harvested?
We work directly with the producers for all our products. We go and seek out the C’ZON fruit and vegetables where they are grown, during the natural growing season, and all are grown outdoors under natural conditions. They are harvested when fully ripened, at their best in terms of taste, then prepared and packed by hand. They are transported daily by air or refrigerated truck to ensure they stay at their freshest. Our partner producers are located in various countries, including Kenya, Peru, Guatemala, Zambia, Egypt, Mexico, Holland, Poland etc. We select them for the quality of the products they cultivate (obviously!), but also based on the certification they’ve been awarded for product monitoring, harvesting methods, as well as for their working conditions and the services they offer their employees.

A C’ZON producer is a partner who shares the same vision of market development as us, and who shares the same sense of customer service.

A C’ZON producer is Global Gap certified (for good agricultural practices, from field to processing station) and BRC or IFS (for food safety and working conditions at the packing stage). These certifications indicate our level of commitment, both in social and environmental terms. 100% of C’ZON producers also boast ethical certification focusing on improvements to working conditions (e.g.: Fairtrade or ETI (Ethical Trade Initiative)). These partnerships are founded on the desire to grow together and on an equitable “win-win” basis (prices set for the year, for example).

In order to have a product as fresh as possible and available throughout the year, our fruits and vegetables are grown in full season in various production countries and must sometimes be transported by air. In order to reduce the carbon footprint of our products as much as possible, we don’t produce our fruits and vegetables in heated greenhouses; we only transport edible products, without waste, and lastly we always strive to use scheduled passenger flights and not cargo planes.