Faster cooling. Longer freshness. Less waste.

Vacuum cooling solutions for fresh produce growers, exporters and cold chain operators.

Fresh produce loses value fast after harvest. Heat drives respiration, moisture loss, quality decline and shorter shelf life. For high-value crops such as leafy greens, herbs, mushrooms, sprouts, broccoli, asparagus and celery, slow cooling is not just an operational issue. It is a margin issue.

Weber Vacuum Group designs and builds industrial vacuum cooling systems that remove field heat quickly, uniformly and efficiently — from the outside to the core.

At Fruit Attraction Madrid 2026, we invite growers, exporters, processors and logistics companies to discover how vacuum cooling can improve product quality, reduce rejection rates and increase cold chain performance.

Visit Weber Vacuum Group at Fruit Attraction Madrid 2026

6–8 October 2026
Madrid, Spain
NL Pavilion — Hall 6

Fruit Attraction is one of Europe’s most important meeting points for the international fruit and vegetable industry. For Weber Vacuum Group, it is the right platform to meet companies that are serious about freshness, shelf life and postharvest performance.

Whether you grow, pack, export or distribute fresh produce, our team will help you understand where vacuum cooling fits into your operation — and where it does not.

Why vacuum cooling?

Because fresh produce does not wait.

After harvest, produce continues to breathe, sweat and generate heat. The longer field heat stays inside the product, the faster quality declines. Conventional cold storage can be too slow, especially when pallets are packed tightly or when products need to move quickly into export logistics.

Vacuum cooling accelerates the pre-cooling process by lowering the pressure inside a sealed vacuum room. A small fraction of the product’s own moisture evaporates, removing heat directly from the produce. The result is fast, uniform cooling — not only on the surface, but through the product mass.

For the right products, vacuum cooling can deliver:

Ultra-fast pre-cooling
Reduce cooling time from hours to minutes.

Longer shelf life
Slow down respiration and preserve freshness after harvest.

Lower waste and fewer claims
Protect product quality before it enters storage, transport or retail distribution.

Better logistics efficiency
Move products faster from harvest to packing, storage, export or delivery.

Lower pressure on cold storage
Remove the main heat load before products enter the cold room.

Best-fit products for vacuum cooling

Vacuum cooling works best for produce with a high surface-to-weight ratio and good moisture permeability.

Leafy greens

Ideal for iceberg lettuce, leafy lettuce, spinach, arugula and similar products. Fast pre-cooling helps preserve crispness, colour and shelf life.

Herbs and microgreens

Delicate herbs are highly sensitive to heat and moisture. Vacuum cooling can rapidly reduce temperature while helping manage surface moisture.

Mushrooms

Mushrooms are highly perishable and continue generating heat after harvest. Vacuum cooling helps cool them quickly to the core while drying the skin, supporting better appearance and longer storage life.

Sprouts and delicate vegetables

Tender products benefit from fast temperature reduction before quality loss begins.

Broccoli, asparagus, celery and sweetcorn

Compact or heavier products may require more specific system design, cycle settings or hydro-vacuum support. Weber can assess the right approach based on your crop, packaging and throughput.

What makes Weber different?

We only build vacuum solutions.

Weber Vacuum Group is focused on industrial vacuum technology for cooling, baking, food and drying applications. Our fresh produce systems are developed for real production environments, where speed, reliability, serviceability and total cost of ownership matter.

Dutch engineering

Our systems are designed by a Dutch engineering team and built for industrial performance.

Standard systems and tailor-made solutions

From compact one-pallet systems to high-capacity multi-room installations, Weber can match the cooling system to your product flow, pallet format and daily throughput.

High throughput

For large operations, Weber can design systems capable of cooling high volumes of produce per day with efficient room configuration, powerful vacuum capacity and optimized refrigeration.

Energy-conscious cooling

Weber offers hydronic cooling technology for vacuum cooling systems, designed to improve cooling speed, reduce refrigerant volume and support lower maintenance risk.

Global support

With regional offices, partners and remote support capabilities, Weber supports customers before, during and after installation.

The business case is simple.

Vacuum cooling is not just a machine purchase. It is a postharvest performance upgrade.

The commercial value comes from five areas:

1. Less product loss
Faster pre-cooling helps reduce quality decline, shrinkage and rejection risk.

2. Longer selling window
Better freshness gives growers, exporters and distributors more flexibility.

3. Faster turnaround
Products can move faster from harvest to packing, storage, transport or export.

4. Lower cold room burden
The cold store no longer has to remove the full field heat load from warm pallets.

5. Stronger customer confidence
Retailers and importers expect consistent product quality. Better pre-cooling supports better delivery performance.

Is vacuum cooling right for your operation?

At Fruit Attraction, our team can quickly assess your case.

We will look at:

Product type
Harvest temperature
Required storage temperature
Pallet weight and packaging
Daily throughput
Current cooling method
Cooling bottlenecks
Shelf-life targets
Export distance
Available space and utilities
Investment readiness

In 20 minutes, we can give you a practical first view of whether vacuum cooling can create value for your operation.

[Book a 20-minute meeting]

Compare your current cooling method

Cold storage

Simple, but slow. Often not ideal for removing field heat from packed pallets quickly.

Forced-air cooling

Faster than room cooling, but still cools from the outside in and can require long cooling times for dense loads.

Hydro cooling

Useful for selected crops, but not suitable for all products and introduces water contact.

Vacuum cooling

Fast, uniform and highly effective for leafy greens, herbs, mushrooms and many other fresh produce categories. Best used as rapid pre-cooling before cold storage, transport or export.

Designed for real fresh produce operations

Weber systems are used by companies that need consistent cooling performance every day.

Typical applications include:

Growers with high daily harvest volumes
Exporters supplying international markets
Packing houses handling multiple crop types
Mushroom farms
Herb producers
Cold chain and logistics operators
Retail supply chain partners
Processing companies working with fresh ingredients