Aussie frozen berry manufacturer wins award

Innovators Stuart and Allison McGruddy have been rewarded for their efforts to keep Australian grown and made berry products in supermarket freezers.

My Berries, founded in 2013, turns surplus fresh fruit, which would’ve otherwise been discarded, into value-added frozen and freeze-dried products.

Through My Berries, local farmers are provided with a profitable solution for seasonal fruit waste and Australian families are provided with an alternative to imports.

The family business recently won the Advanced Manufacturing Award at the 2023 Moreton Bay Business Excellence and Innovation Awards for its use of innovative technologies and processes to transform materials into new products. Last year, My Berries upgraded and expanded its Caboolture facilities to keep up with demand and launched a new snack food range.

This is its second consecutive year of winning as it took home the Food and Agribusiness Excellence Award in 2022.

Allison McGruddy, My Berries Director, said freeze-dried technology relies on the manufacturing process starting quickly straight off the farm to preserve the fruits’ vitamins and antioxidants.

My Berries saves ripe berries that don’t meet cosmetic supermarket specs in peak season and freezes them to ensure Australian grown options are available all year round.

“My Berries is so proud to be flying the Australian manufacturing flag and to be recognised for all the hard work behind the scenes in launching a new product that’s both grown and made on home soil,” McGruddy said.

Peter Flannery, Moreton Bay Mayor, said this year’s finalists are an inspiration to businesses in the region.

“In the face of rising input costs, labour shortages and globally difficult trading conditions, these local legends have somehow managed to rise above seemingly insurmountable odds,” he said.