Hiperbaric sat down with Judy Fiol, president, of 305 Squeezed to discuss how they use HPP for fresh juices and their partnership with Hiperbaric.
About 305 Squeezed
305 Squeezed is a woman-owned and family-operated company based out of Miami, FL. They have been citrus dealers in the state of Florida for over 20 years, so their love for citrus runs deep. Year-round, 305 Squeezed receives the freshest local and international citrus and they pride themselves in the quality they deliver. It’s hard to find bottled fresh squeezed orange juice and different combinations of it. Thus, 305 Squeezed was created to fill the need for REAL, authentic juices that aren’t pasteurized.
305 Squeezed juices have no more than three ingredients in each product, with no added sugar, no preservatives, and no artificial ingredients. Their process is what makes their juices unique. How they extract the juice from the oranges is the key factor in making the best-tasting juice. The juices are freshly squeezed, bottled, and HPP’d, a process that gives the juices a shelf life of 55 days by taking out harmful bacteria, all while preserving the quality and nutrients of each juice.
305 Squeezed honors the quality of its juices by making them in small batches to keep them fresh. Because the juices are made with natural ingredients, they will never taste the same and will always settle. And that is the beauty of Mother Nature!
Q&A with Judy Fiol, President, 305 Squeezed
Tell us about 305 Squeezed and how the business got started.
Well, to be honest with you, we started in farmer’s markets 12 years ago and we did very well. But we had some big companies come to us and say, “Hey, we’d love to have your juices at our store.” But because we didn’t have a shelf life, we couldn’t do it. It was crazy because we sold so much at the farmer’s market. One day, someone at the farmer’s market said to us, “Hey, why don’t you HPP your juices?” We didn’t even know what HPP was. So, I Googled it and found a local HPP toller. The toller was Green Plant, and that’s how everything got started.
We had about eight juices and we’ve grown to 12. HPP’s been a game-changer. We started our juices because there was a necessity of making juices with no artificial ingredients, no preservatives, and no additives. HPP keeps the good ingredients. I don’t believe in heat and thermal pasteurization. It destroys a lot of the nutrients in the juices. With HPP, you’re guaranteeing that freshness, that quality. You’re keeping all the nutrients and taking away all the bad bacteria that could affect the juice if it didn’t have the HPP process.
I’m curious, are some of those people that approached you at the farmer’s market, are they now clients of yours?
Some of them are. Some of them, they went in other directions. When we first started, it was basically serendipity because if you would’ve told me 12 years ago I was going to have a juice company, I would’ve said, “Really?” But being a diabetic, I started the juices because I couldn’t have the juices in the store. Being a diabetic, the first thing that happens is when you have a sugar low, they say, “Oh, just drink a little bit of juice and that’ll help you get your sugar level up when your sugar goes down and all that.” But every time I drank juice from the store, which was pasteurized, it would get me sick.
That’s basically why I started the juice company because there had to be people just like me. There was a need. And then it grew. I call it a family of juices, but we have a variety of juices from orange carrot, orange beet, orange ginger, orange turmeric pepper. We basically cater to a lot of juice lovers that really want a high-quality juice and care how it’s made.
When did you start HPP’ing your products?
To my knowledge, it was about 2019.
Talk to me about some of the advantages of using a toller.
Green Plant, they’re a great partner in this. They’re a local company and they really help us get the best product out there. They’ve been relevant to our success because they are the HPP company. They have the Hiperbaric HPP machines. As a matter of fact, they are the largest toller in the state of Florida.
What do you see are the main advantages of HPP?
Shelf life, 100%. Today, I can sell to stores, large or small restaurants, cafes, just everywhere. It really changed the game.
Safety’s important, too, as well as quality, the clean label, the reliability. I can count on HPP to give us the best product, with minimal processing. There’s no additives, no preservatives. It keeps the same quality and goals that I wanted for my juice when I wasn’t doing HPP.
What’s your shelf life now?
About 97% of the products are 55 days from shelf life.
Were you able to scale geographically as well as volume?
Oh, 100%. I go all the way past Palm Beach and all the way to the Keys, and we’re expanding up north. HPP gives us the ability to do that.
What percentage of 305 Squeezed is in stores vs. restaurants?
I would say about 50/50.
Why did you choose Hiperbaric? Was it more about choosing the toller who had Hiperbaric equipment or can you talk a little bit about your involvement with Hiperbaric?
When we found out about HPP, we contacted Green Plant, which was a local toller. They gave us a tour and explained to us how HPP works. They showed us the machine, and said, “This is Hiperbaric.” We did our due diligence. We found out about the company, and we loved what it said online, what they were about, what they represented, what they did, and we thought that it was a good fit for us.
We later went to Hiperbaric, and met Anthony (Zapata). They gave us a tour and showed us the machine. They were great. Just the support, everything, they’re amazing. Anthony and his team, they’re nice people and they really support local companies like ours and also Green Plant. They’ve been great partners.
Who does your packaging?
The design, believe it or not, my husband and I designed it with crayons, to be honest with you. We have a great bottle company that we work with, which is Captiva Containers.
Any thoughts about where the HPP industry is going or what you think will happen next?
I think it has a very good future. A lot of products can be HPP’d and I think more people know about it. Nobody wants to eat anything that has additives or preservatives. You don’t even know what it means, to be honest with you. It’s nice to have a product that you can trust, that you can give to your mom, your dad, your children. HPP has allowed us to do this.
