Tomatoes: it's all in the can

Magro Brothers will be buying an average of 120 tons of fresh tomatoes a day as the tomato season kicks off.

The summer is the most important season for this Gozitan company which invests hundreds of Maltese liri each year to give free tomato seeds to farmers.

There are over 600 Gozitan and Maltese farmers registered with Magro Brothers cultivating approximately 2,200 tumoli of land in Gozo and Malta.

The company produces over 60 per cent of the tomatoes processed in the Maltese Islands, which are then canned as polpa, sauces or ketchup, among others.

Once the harvesting is over, the company will be dedicating its energies to placing the product in cans.

Magro Brothers gives a lot of attention to its cans to ensure that the final product reaches your table as fresh as the day it was picked.

The company has opted to use ridged printed cans for its Mayor and Three Hills brands which, though not as visually pleasing as the paper labelled cans, actually lead to a superior product in the end.

It has to be said that every can of 400 g, be it local or foreign, has to have ridges on the side. This process is called beading in technical jargon and serves to give rigidity to the can while allowing for expansion of the tinplate during cooking.

Having a printed can with visible ridges has a number of advantages, among them:

¤ Paper labelling absorbs more dirt. This could lead to contaminating the contents if it gets torn and ends up in your food.

¤ The quality of the tinplate material which allows direct printing has to be of a higher grade than that normally used for paper label application. The result is a safer container.

¤ Printed cans are also varnished on the outside to protect against rust.

¤ A can which is not wrapped in a paper label is much easier to grip, due to the ridges.

¤ Cans are easily dented on their way to the supermarket shelves, so a printed can bares it all immediately, allowing you to notice the degree of dents. On the other hand, a can which has a paper label disguises any rust or dents.

¤ The inside of all Mayor cans have a special white coating, which ensures that the contents do not get in contact with the tinplate material of the can and do not absorb the bad taste of tin. This means you can safely store the rest of the product, which you didn't use, still in the can safely in the refrigerator.

¤ All the cans, produced by Magro Brothers' own plant in Xewkija, which is ISO 9001:2000 approved, adhere to strict European standards, and undergo a lengthy production process to ensure that the can protects the freshness of the product and reaches you intact.