Rice has been a food staple for centuries – most believe its origins date back to sometime around 3000 B.C. – and it is currently considered a primary part of the diet for over 50% of the world’s population.* Despite this impressive legacy, Sage V Foods (pronounced Sage Five) has been able to build a reputation for finding innovations and new applications for rice. In fact, Sage V founder, Pete Vegas, was one of the first to develop a process for individually quick frozen (IQF) rice.
The company was founded in 1992 as a subsidiary of American Rice/Comet Rice (a large rice milling company) and initially operated under the name Comet Rice Ingredients. In October of 1998, management bought the company from American Rice, Inc. and renamed the company Sage V Foods. It is not a miller but purchases rice for processing, and now manufactures a portfolio of rice flours , pregelatinized flours, instant rice, frozen rice, and crisp rice.
Sage V specializes in producing rice-based ingredients for use in processed foods for industrial markets, and their line of frozen rice is also sold into the food service and retail markets. They are the biggest supplier of IQF rice to the industrial and food service markets, as well as being the #1 source of crisp rice and rice flour to the industrial market. They are increasingly becoming an important supplier of instant rices.
Their proprietary process for IQF rice gives them a wide flexibility in capabilities and efficiencies, that truly differentiates them from other suppliers. They created the IQF rice category in the mid-90s and sold out the capacity of the plant within a couple of years. They have a new 90,000 sq ft plant that opened in 2009 that is mostly dedicated to IQF rice production.
Sage V is also unique in the industry because they are wholly devoted to producing only rice products, while rice is typically one of many products offered by most of their competitors. In contrast, these competitors use IQF equipment designed for vegetables..
Sage V has developed very close relationships with two of the three largest mills in the southern growing area (the key suppliers of rice in Texas and Arkansas), and Sage V’s plants are located very close to these mills. They have direct access to all types and varieties of U.S. rice from the rice growing areas in the southern U.S. and California, and also ready access to foreign supplies. In addition, the company contracts directly with farmers to grow specialty varieties of rice and organic rice.
To learn more about Sage V visit their website at www.sagevfoods.com.
*The Cambridge World History of Food, II.A.7. – Rice