When Knut Lillenau took over his father’s dairy farm in Sweden in 2000, he probably would not have predicted that by 2017, his business would have transformed into the second largest producer of chilled ready meals in the country. Moving from dairy cows to beef cows, and then establishing a café and food store, Knut and his wife, Christina Jonsson-Lillenau, found themselves in need of a solution to utilize the non-prime pieces of beef from their cows and reduce food waste at their restaurant. What they found was an in-pack microwave cooking and pasteurization method from Micvac that allowed them to serve fresh, nutritious food at their café anytime, expand their menu, and bring their ready meals to the retail market.
“We have grown quite quickly, but at a pace that has worked quite well for us,” says Knut. In its first year using the Micvac method, Knut and Christina’s company, Grön Ko (translated as “Green Cow”), produced 1,000 meals per week. Today, with the installation of a new Micvac microwave tunnel, the company is averaging close to 20,000 per week, with the capacity to expand to 35,000, at its plant in Karlstad.
