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Kad Bnei Darom, an established leader in agricultural cultivation and artisanal food production with a 50-year heritage, has announced the upcoming launch of Cuca Herb Pops.
The launch is engineered to transition the segment away from legacy, pre-portioned frozen herbs in rigid plastic trays toward a highly convenient, packaging-light, and portion-controlled spherical format.
In a mature ambient and frozen grocery market, packaging waste and product degradation remain significant hurdles for both retailers and consumers. Traditional frozen herb formats rely on moulded plastic trays sealed with plastic films, which require significant freezer space, drive up packaging costs, and lead to freezer burn.
Developed in collaboration with Practical Innovation, a prominent product development and innovation firm, the Cuca brand replaces this old infrastructure with a tray-free, flexible pouch system.
Each Cuca pouch contains uniform, flash-frozen 15g spheres of minced herbs that require no individual wrapping or protective films. This design represents a meaningful reduction in plastic waste and material overheads, allowing retail and foodservice partners to align their procurement with modern environmental, social, and governance (ESG) expectations.
David Ben-Zeev, CEO of Kad Bnei Darom, characterised the launch as a milestone in food innovation. Ben-Zeev stated that whilst honouring their traditional roots, Cuca Pops mark the company's expanding foothold in the technology-driven food sector, bringing convenience and eco-consciousness into commercial and domestic kitchens alike.
Individual Quick Freezing Technology
Maintaining the structural integrity, volatile oils, and vibrant green colour of fresh herbs through a freeze-and-thaw cycle represents a major food science and research and development challenge. Fresh leafy herbs are highly perishable and prone to rapid oxidation and browning once chopped.
To resolve these biological limitations, the Cuca range utilises advanced IQF (Individually Quick Frozen) technology:
Non-Sticky Spheres: The high-velocity freezing process ensures that the individual 15g herb spheres do not stick to each other inside the flexible pouch, enabling frictionless portion extraction.
Structural Stability: The spheres are engineered to resist rapid thawing and maintain their shape even when left outside the freezer, preventing the messy, watery separation common in traditional frozen purees.
Clean Label Profile: The range launches with six key varieties, including garlic, onion, parsley, cilantro, dill, and basil. Each variety is 100 per cent natural, containing zero artificial additives, preservatives, or added oils.
Tal Leizer, CEO of Practical Innovation, noted that these quick-use frozen herb balls were specifically designed to meet the market demand for premium-quality natural ingredients that offer both convenience and flexibility whilst actively combating the overuse of plastic packaging and raw food waste.
Vertical Integration and Agriculture Sourcing
A primary commercial differentiator for Kad Bnei Darom is its near-fully vertically integrated supply chain. The company grows its herbs in partnership with local farmers in the Arava desert, a region known for its high solar intensity and advanced arid-land agricultural techniques.
By processing the herbs from field to frozen directly at the agricultural source shortly after harvest, Kad Bnei Darom is able to lock in "just-picked" flavour, aroma, and nutritional value without relying on intermediary packaging or long, carbon-heavy transport loops.
This regional sovereignty over the supply chain is essential for securing consistent product quality, helping the brand defend its premium position on retail shelves and within the high-volume foodservice sector.
