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Oranges
Packaging & Transportation
When the bins of oranges reach the packinghouse, they are poured onto a series of moving rollers to be sorted by size. Fruit that are too small drop into a bin to be used for juicing. Fruits that have spoiled are also removed.
Then the oranges are washed.
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The first step is to loosen the dirt on the outer skin in a bath. Then they go through a shower to wash off the remaining dirt.
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Next, the oranges get thoroughly scrubbed on a “ brush bed” using soap, water, and a series of brushes that spin the fruit around vigorously so they are thoroughly cleaned.
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After a thorough rinse, the cleaned fruit is dried by either passing through a series of warm dryers or by sponge rolled that soak up the extra water.
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Then the fruit are graded, or sorted, again – this time by hand. Fruit that is too small or has blemishes are removed and used for juicing.
During washing, most of the fruit’s natural wax is removed. This wax must be replaced or the fruit will dry out and spoil very quickly. Some waxes are sprayed on, others are brushed on, and sometimes the fruit is dipped! Then the wax is dried onto the fruit by a “wax-setter”.
Then a stamp-rolling machine stamps the fruit. Sometimes the stamps are put on by hand. Can you imagine putting a sticker on all of those fruits? Wow!
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After stamping, the fruit is sorted one more time by size, and then packed into cardboard cartons. The packing station consists of a series of roll board tables, where fruit is delivered by size to the top of the table. The fruit then rolls down in a single layer to the individual packers to be boxed.
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*Images courtesy of www.triplecgroves.com |
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