ORLANDO, FL - This National Salad Month, Fresh Express®, the category leader in value-added salads, is challenging consumers to rethink everything they know about salads, not as a side dish, but as a craveable, complete meal solution that delivers flavor, convenience, and better-for-you living.

As consumers increasingly seek simpler, faster ways to eat well, Fresh Express is making it easier than ever to bring restaurant-quality meals to the table in minutes, with more than 100 chef-inspired salad varieties enjoyed by millions each week.

"Salads are no longer just a side; they're becoming one of the easiest ways to create a complete, satisfying meal at home," said Fabian Pereira, Vice President of Marketing and Innovation at Fresh Express, in the recent release. "We're focused on helping consumers bring more flavor, variety, and convenience into their routines without sacrificing quality. National Salad Month is the perfect moment to inspire that shift."

Turning Everyday Salads into Complete, Craveable Meals

Fresh Express is showcasing how its salad kits can be transformed into elevated, chef-driven meals by simply adding a protein or twist, delivering versatility for everything from quick lunches to shareable dinners. Featured recipe inspiration includes:

• Caribbean Pork Tenderloin with Tropical Mango Crunch
• Creamy Mushroom Caesar Steak Wrap
• Salmon and Tuna Poke Tostadas with Zesty Hawaiian Crunch Salad
• Lemon Chicken Francese over Italian Herb & Parmesan Salad

Each recipe demonstrates how Fresh Express kits can serve as the foundation for high-quality, flavor-forward meals, aligning with consumers' growing desire for convenience without compromise.

Introducing the "Fresh Start to Summer Challenge"

To bring this to life, Fresh Express is launching the Fresh Start to Summer Challenge, a two-week guided program running May 11–24 designed to help consumers reset their routines with simple, achievable habits. The program encourages participants to:

• Incorporate greens into unexpected moments (including breakfast)
• Build balanced, satisfying meals using Fresh Express kits
• Share their creations and progress socially

Participants will gain access to:

• A dedicated online hub with daily prompts and inspiration
• A curated content series featuring recipes, wellness tips, and expert guidance
• A social community experience encouraging sharing and accountability

"Small, consistent changes can have a meaningful impact," said Steph Grasso, Registered Dietitian and Fresh Expressionist. "The Fresh Start to Summer Challenge helps people discover how easy and enjoyable it can be to build nourishing, satisfying meals into their daily routine."

A New Way to "Express Yourself" Through Food

At the heart of the campaign is Fresh Express's brand platform, Express Yourself, celebrating creativity, personalization, and self-expression through food. With endless combinations of greens, toppings, and proteins, Fresh Express empowers consumers to create meals that reflect their tastes, lifestyles, and goals; whether they're seeking indulgence, balance, or a fresh start.

Consumers can join the challenge and explore recipes beginning May 11 here, and share their creations using #FreshStartToSummer

SAN ANTONIO, TX - The Texas International Produce Association (TIPA) delivered high-impact education at the 2026 Viva Fresh Expo, equipping produce leaders with both real-time market insights and a forward-looking strategy to compete in a rapidly evolving global landscape.

Headlining the education program, futurist economist Richard Kottmeyer of FutureBridge challenged attendees to look beyond consumer-related volatility and rethink how fresh produce can be positioned as a higher value, health-linked, consumer-relevant category over the next decade.

The keynote introduced “consumomics”, FutureBridge’s lens on how policy, economics, healthcare, and consumer behavior are converging to reshape demand and consumer purchasing, and unveiled the whitepaper and executive summary, now available to industry members.

“Viva Fresh is about giving our members the tools to win, not just today, but well into the future,” said Dante Galeazzi, President and CEO of TIPA, in the recent release. “This keynote wasn’t about reacting to disruption. It was about understanding the forces shaping demand and making smarter, long-term decisions that position our industry for growth.”

The whitepaper, developed in partnership with FutureBridge, provides a strategic roadmap for produce companies to evolve beyond transactional selling toward demand-driven merchandising strategies rooted in consumer relevance, health outcomes, and value creation.

Key takeaways from the keynote include:

• Fresh produce is becoming part of the preventive health economy, and a tool in everyday wellbeing
• The next frontier is biological relevance, focusing on merchandising for needs like energy, fullness, hydration, glucose control, and healthy snacking.
• Demand will be driven beyond the produce aisle by healthcare, GLP-1 use, school nutrition, wellness programs, sustainability, and affordability.
• Merchandising must become decision science linking needs, pricing, health, occasions, waste, and repeat buys.
• Top companies will create demand using education, clinical credibility, retail media, personalization, recipes, and benefit-led storytelling.

TIPA is providing access to both the whitepaper and executive summary to ensure members can translate these insights into action and accelerate growth across the supply chain. FutureBridge is available for consultation projects to help companies put strategy into action.

Complementing the forward-looking keynote, the highly interactive “Market Mayhem” session, led by TIPA’s Dante Galeazzi and ag economist Dr. Michael Swanson of Wells Fargo, delivered a real-time pulse check on how macro forces are impacting produce businesses today.

Using live audience polling, the session revealed a nuanced reality: while headlines are constant, their actual impact varies and operators must separate signal from noise.

Among the key findings from more than 100 industry respondents:

• Headlines matter – but not entirely: 78% said headlines impact decisions at least somewhat, but only 22% said “a lot”
• Global conflict is real – but mostly disruptive, not catastrophic: 77% reported “some disruption,” while only 13% labeled it “market mayhem”
• Tariffs remain a divided issue: Nearly an even split, with 59% believing tariffs raise prices and 45% disagreeing
• Labor and immigration are the most immediate pressure points: 69% said immigration-related issues are causing disruption or “market mayhem” today
• Labor ranked as the #1 issue expected to impact business moving forward
• Political and policy environments are widely felt: 95% said current political policies are impacting their business
• Consumer pricing behavior is less predictable than assumed: A majority (58%) said consumers are not highly sensitive to price changes

“The industry’s next breakthrough may not come from growing more, shipping faster or discounting harder,” said Richard Kottmeyer, futurist economist at FutureBridge, in the recent release. “It may come from changing how the market understands the value of fresh produce. The contrarian opportunity is to stop defending produce as a perishable commodity and start proving it as infrastructure for health, affordability, food security and quality of life. That is where the next growth story will be written.”

“These results reinforce what we’re hearing across the industry; there’s no single force driving change,” said Galeazzi. “Labor, policy, global conflict, and consumer behavior are all interacting at once. The companies that win will be the ones that stay focused, interpret the data correctly, and make strategic, not reactive decisions.”

Together, the keynote and Market Mayhem sessions delivered a unified message: the future of fresh produce belongs to companies that can balance short-term realities with long-term strategies.

“As a $100 billion dollar industry, the opportunity in fresh produce has never been greater, but neither has the complexity,” Galeazzi added. “Our role at TIPA is to bring clarity to that complexity and give our members the tools, insights, and confidence to grow and the Tex-Mex corridor is the place to do it.”

Industry members can access the Future of Fresh Merchandising whitepaper and executive summary here.