In the late 1980’s, Greeley Trading was selling raw cleaned and washed pinto beans to the Mexican restaurant trade. These restaurants had to hand sort, soak, cook, and then mash these beans to the proper consistency. All of these steps took a considerable amount of effort, training and time to accomplish. With the growth of this business, there became a need for beans that required less preparation time. Consistently matching the quality of the beans that were prepared from scratch was also of primary concern to our customers. In order to meet the demand to reduce preparation time and maintain "made from scratch" quality, the owners of Greeley Trading built a plant to pre-cook beans.
Since 1992, without the use of any additives or chemicals, Zateca Foods has been cooking various bean varieties in our kettles and then drying them under carefully controlled conditions to make them shelf-stable. This process takes much of the time, energy and hassle out of cooking beans without compromising the nutritional value or taste profile of beans made from scratch. Since our inception, providing kitchens with great tasting and easy to use bean ingredients has been the purpose of Zateca Foods.