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Fresh Meat Sales Are Blooming From New Lighting Technology

A high-tech retail lighting company is putting the bloom back into butchers' fresh meat sales.

Jamie Orr, Regional Sales Manager, Promolux Inc., says his product line of Promolux lighting offers tremendous advantages to fresh meat managers including less product spoilage and an increase in customer eye appeal, which impacts directly on consumer impulse buying.

"Ultraviolet radiation emitted from general purpose lamps encourages bacterial growth, enzymes, dehydration and oxidation, which break down product appearance," says Orr. "By using Promolux lights, retailers typically experience from one to three days extra shelf life."

Meat and sausages exposed through traditional light sources usually show photo chemical reactions on the surfaces of the cut, company officials say. These lead to color changes: usually gray, thereby losing their fresh appearance.

"Using Promolux lamps means less rewraps, less discoloration, longer bloom on meat, and truer reds and whites in cuts," Orr says, "it's a sign of freshness rather than a tinge of yellow."

The company explains Promolux lamps are specifically designed for specialized areas such as displays of perishable foods. They provide a perfect balance of color output to reveal the highest contrast for each and every shade of natural color that exists in various cuts of fresh meat and sausages. Promolux lamps are also approved in writing by health officials for applications such as meat display, the company says.

"Today, consumers are demanding premium quality freshness, and if they don't find it in your meat display cases, they'll not purchase," Orr says. "Upgrading your lighting display cases to Promolux specialty lamps will save you money by increasing shelf life and by increasing consumer impulse purchases."

The company says meat managers consider Promolux an ideal investment because in many cases extended shelf life alone will pay for the bulbs in less than three months.

Promolux was established in Europe for more than twenty years and for fifteen years in North America through its Canadian subsidiary, MGV Inc. Promolux manufactures lamps for many markets, in North America and abroad, so worldwide standards are maintained.

Promolux lamps are multi-coated with rare earth phosphors that are most often found in television picture tube coating. It is a more expensive coating process than used in making fluorescent lamps. Additional special coatings are used to control UV radiation and to protect the lamps from changing their faithful color reproduction. Additional technical information is available on the Promolux website at http://www.promolux.com.