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Mering cookies with a flavored filling. Macarons were first produced in the 8th century in Venetian monasteries. In 1533, the recipe came to France with the pastry chefs brought by the Italian noble woman who arrived to marry the king. Macarons have been considered French ever since. Macarons are as much a treat for the eyes as for the mouth with colorful mering shells sandwiching a flavorful filling. To prepare what's known as Italian meringue for the shells, the bakers combine sugar and water. They heat the mixture to precisely 106° C, slightly above the boiling point. In a mixing bowl, they combine egg whites with dehydrated egg whites.
Using a combination of liquid and dried egg whites reduces the amount of moisture in the meringue mixture. When there's less moisture, it's easier to control the baking. They mix the egg whites for 8 to 10 minutes to make an emulsion. Then add the boiling water and sugar. They mix until the temperature drops to 40° C. No thermometer is necessary. They can tell by the stiff texture of what is now meringue. The next step is to flavor and color the meringue. They weigh very precise quantities of almond powder, They transfer these ingredients to the mixer and blend them thoroughly.
They add the blended almond powder and icing sugar to a mixture of egg whites and in this case red food coloring because these will be raspberry macarons. They resume mixing for another 2 or 3 minutes until everything is thoroughly blended. Then they add this mixture to the meringue to color and flavor it. Five more minutes of blending and the meringue is ready. It's time to form the meringue shells. They pour the meringue into the feed vat of the depositor.
The depositor dispenses 5 g discs of meringue, 60 discs per lined baking sheet. Using a micrometer, they measure each disc to make sure it's between 4.3 and 4.5 cm in diameter. Mering expands with baking, so this ensures each disc will bake into a shell that's the correct size. Then fans blow air to dry out the tops. Evaporating the moisture prevents the top of the discs from rising as they bake in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes at 121° C. When they come out of the oven, the baked shells are set out to cool.
Meanwhile, the bakers prepare the filling, mixing chocolate with piping hot 35% cream. As the chocolate melts, they blend the ingredients thoroughly. Then they refrigerate the filling for 12 hours at 9° C. When the filling comes out of the fridge, it's firm but malleable enough to be scooped up and put in a pastry bag. With filling and shells now ready, they can begin assembling the macarons. They squeeze about 5 g of filling onto each shell. Then place another shell on top, pressing gently to spread the filling outward.
The macarons fit perfectly into the slots of plastic retail trays thanks to the careful measuring of the meringue discs prior to baking. The trays pass through a machine which seals them in a packet of plastic film to keep out moisture. Then each tray is packaged in a retail box. This colorful selection features five flavors of macarons: raspberry, blueberry, lemon, cherry, and exotic fruits. Chocolate brownies are almost irresistible. Developed in the United States over a century ago, the first brownies were either invented in Bangor, Maine, when a homemaker's chocolate cake fell flat, or the recipe was cooked up deliberately by
the chef at a Chicago hotel. Neither cake nor cookie, a brownie is something in between, a moist, dense, and chewy square. There's no doubt it brings something special to the table. To mass-produce brownies, this factory starts with canola oil and zanthan gum, a natural preservative that also increases moisture retention during baking. They blend these two ingredients in an industrial mixer. Then they add sugar, cocoa, and a canola and palm oil shortening. They reactivate the mixer and it creams the ingredients into a chocolate batter. The next elements are whole eggs and corn syrup.
The massive mixing arm once again descends into the bowl and whips these ingredients into the batter. A worker then wheels the bowl to a hopper which releases a measured amount of flour. The flour thickens the mix and it'll give the baked brownies structure. After 25 minutes of mixing in stages, the batter is complete. There's enough of it in this large mixing bowl to make 6,000 brownies. They transfer the smooth chocolatey mixture to a machine called a depositor.
A sprayer mists pans with oil to keep the brownies from sticking to them during baking. The pans then arrive at the depositor. This computerized machine releases precisely 45 g of batter into each pan, and it has a perfect aim every time. The pans of brownie batter now enter a 3 and 1/2 m tall oven. This oven has 13 tiers that move the brownies back and forth for a more thorough baking. After about 20 minutes, the brownies are cooked. They exit the oven and head into a cooling chamber.
Like the oven, it's multi-tiered. The pans zigzag through it as fans cool the brownies. The cooling firms up the brownies so that they don't fall apart as a robot arm with needle-like claws now lifts them out of the pans and transfers them to the next conveyor. The brownies land intact thanks not only to the careful cooling but the gentle treatment from the robot. The brownies round a corner and transfer to another conveyor. At the end, a worker retrieves the brownies and places them in a narrow conveyor system that takes them through the wrapping process.
A computer sensor detects their approach and signals the plastic wrapping system ahead. The plastic unwinds into the wrapping machine as the brownies enter it. Metal wheels with grooves pull the film under the brownies, and then heated wheels melt the seam to close it. A hot jaw then seals and severs the plastic film between the brownies, creating individual packets. A robot grabs a carton, opens it, and sets it on a conveyor next to the brownie line. An employee then places eight packets of brownies in each carton.
They ride by a rotary device and rails which fold the ends of the cartons. No human fingers necessary. The box then travels through a metal detector. It uses a highfrequency electromagnetic signal to detect any metal fragments in the brownies. It takes about an hour to make and package brownies at this factory. Soon there'll be nothing left but a few crumbs. frosted and adorned with sprinkles, a cupcake is a sugary indulgence that you don't have to share. We don't really know who invented them, but cupcakes have been around for a century or more, much to the satisfaction of those who want a little cake all to themselves.
These mini cupcakes are the sweetest little things, and there's plenty for everyone because they're mass- prodduced in a factory. The dairy and nut-free recipe starts with canola oil. A worker pours a measured amount into a huge mixer bowl. A blend of baking powder, sea salt, and other micro ingredients is next. He then adds a big bag of sugar. They'll be making 15,000 mini cupcakes in this batch. Pastry flour flows into the mixer from a silo nearby.
He adds cocoa for chocolate flavoring, then activates the mixer to blend it all together. Next are the eggs. They'll act as a binding agent for the chocolate batter and will have a leavenvening effect during baking. A quick mix folds the eggs into the chocolaty blend. A pump now transfers the batter to the next station. The bakery's temperature is critical during pumping. Too warm and the mixture will be too thin to pump. Too cool and it will be too thick. The pump delivers the batter to a hopper. Down the line a bit. A conveyor moves baking trays forward.
A machine uses suctioning devices to pick up paper liners, flip them right side up, and insert them in the baking trays. Valves open and dispense the batter in the hopper into the cupcake liners in the pans. The system controls the flow of batter, so it only fills the liners one/ird of the way. This leaves room for the cake to rise during baking. The pans move through different levels with a range of temperature zones over a period of 25 minutes, finally emerging from the other side.
During baking, the cupcakes have risen above the liners. They now head into a cooling chamber. They stay in here for 20 minutes while fans blow air onto them to cool them down. A robot plunges pin-like tentacles into the cupcakes to lift them out of the pans with the paper liners attached. It transfers them to the packaging conveyor line. Workers pack them in clamshell plastic containers, a dozen to each one. They leave the containers open because they still need to decorate these cupcakes ahead. Fluffy chocolate icing flows out of a hopper into applicators.
They deposit the icing in a swirl onto the cupcakes, adding nearly an inch of height and a lot more sweetness. Down the line, workers load sugary sprinkles into another hopper. A feeder dispenses a few more of the sprinkles onto each of the frosted cupcakes. The containers then ride by a rail that folds the lids over. A pusher device presses down on the lids to close them tightly. The containers of mini cupcakes then meet up with a roller that applies the adhesivebacked labeling. Before the cupcakes can leave the factory, a technician tests a sample
from the production line. He crumbles some of the cake into pods and places them in a machine. The machine probes the water content at a microscopic level to determine if the cupcake is moist enough. Another test evaluates the cupcake's texture. When the samples pass this technological scrutiny, the cupcakes are ready for human taste buds. Many schools today require all food on the premises to be allergyfree because so many children have life-threatening allergies to peanuts, tree nuts, or dairy products. Often, these allergies are so severe that just touching or
inhaling the allergen can cause a potentially deadly reaction. These kidsized chocolate chip banana contain no peanuts, tree nuts, or dairy products. Nothing else this company makes contains them either to eliminate any possibility of cross-contamination. As a further precaution, all the ingredients come from suppliers whose facilities are also entirely peanut, tree nut, and dairyf free. To make the batter, workers first combine water, canola oil, and sugar. Then they add pureed banana and mix until all the ingredients are well blended. They add wheat flour, then sea salt, baking soda, and preservatives such as citric acid, routinely used in packaged foods to prevent the growth of bacteria and mold.
The final ingredients are eggs and chocolate chips, not milk chocolate because these snacks are dairyf free. Instead, chocolate chips custom made for this bakery by a producer of certified kosher parava foods, meaning the products contain neither meat nor dairy ingredients. A pump moves the finished batter from the mixing bowl to a large hopper that feeds the automated production line. At the start of that line, more than 620 loaf baking pans pass under spray nozzles, which lightly grease them with canola oil. This prevents the baked loaves from sticking to the pan. Then the pans enter the depositor which drops 45 g of batter into each loaf cavity.
This one batch of batter produces 6,666 loaves. The filled pans enter a multi-level vertical oven in which they zigzag up and down 13 baking zones of varying temperatures. After 27 minutes, the loaves are fully baked. However, they can't be packaged yet because they're piping hot. So, the next station on the line is a multi-level vertical cooling chamber. Its fans draw out the hot air while blowers introduce filtered cold air. When the pans exit the cooling chamber about 25 minutes later, the loaves are just slightly warm. A robot now descends on two pans at a time. It jabs the loaves with needles to lift them out, then withdraws the needles to drop them on a conveyor belt that's ventilated to help the loaves finish cooling.
This belt transfers them to a narrower one that leads to the packaging area. There, workers line up the loaves in single file on a track that leads to the wrapping machine. Each loaf is roughly 9x5 cm and 4 cm high. Even though each one started out as 45 g of batter, some moisture evaporated during baking, reducing the final loaf weight to 40 g. Under the watchful eye of a sensor, the loaves enter the wrapping machine where printed transparent film envelops them. The two edges of the film overlap slightly underneath the loaves. The machine seals the edges with a combination of heat and pressure. Then it simultaneously seals and cuts the film in between the loaves.
Each chocolate chip banana loaf is now individually wrapped. Workers pack the snacks into their retail packaging. The box moves into a glue machine which seals the flaps. The packaging clearly states that the snacks are free of peanuts, tree nuts, and dairy and contain no artificial flavors or colorings. The bakery conducts several quality control checks throughout production, testing the viscosity and pH level of the batter, for example. It also tests the finished product. Once per hour, they cut up a loaf and place the pieces
in a moisture analyzer. The correct moisture level ensures the loaf has a proper cake texture and isn't dry. Because as much as this snack needs to be safe for kids with allergies, it also has to taste great. The candy wafer is a classic American confection. Invented in 1847, it's a thin, featherweight disc of sugary candy. Softer and faster dissolving than a hard candy. You can bite it right away or let it melt in your mouth. These candy wafers come in eight flavors. The classic roll has a random assortment of 38 pieces. So, part of the fun is choosing a roll that has more of your favorite flavors.
The factory makes one flavor at a time. The first step is to add a blend of food coloring and flavoring to pulverized sugar. This pink color and mint flavoring produces winter green flavor. Next ingredients, corn syrup and a binding solution made of vegetable gums and gelatin dissolved in water. After mixing for about 8 minutes, they check the consistency of what is now candy dough. If it isn't sufficiently thick, elastic, or sticky, they add more binding solution until the dough is just right. Next, they divide the dough into chunks to feed the dough sheet. The first station on the wafer forming line. This black dough is licorice flavor.
A conveyor on the right side returns leftover dough from the end of the line to be reused in new wafers. The dough sheeter compresses the chunks and leftovers and extrudes them through a slot, forming a dough sheet that's 50 cm wide by 2.5 cm thick. This yellow dough is lemon flavor. A steady sprinkling of corn starch prevents the sheet from sticking to the equipment as rollers now compress and stretch the dough forward to flatten the sheet to just 3 mm thick. The next station stamps the company logo, then cuts out the wafers. The cutter moves up and down 180 times per minute, slicing row upon row of wafers, which fall through a gap to a moving conveyor belt below.
The conveyor belt fies the wafers to a multi-level tunnel dryer. They enter the dryer at the top level, then over the course of an hour, travel back and forth, passing through 13 times, a distance of 18 m. These green wafers are lime flavor. The drier temperature is 65° C, warm enough to remove about half the moisture without melting the sugar. These brown wafers are chocolate flavor. Once out of the dryer, they're stiff, so they can now pile up in trays without sticking to each other. Workers stack the trays in a drying room. It's heated and humidified with steam. Over the
course of about 16 hours, the candy wafers dry further until their moisture level descends to between 75 and 1%. The factory tests a few samples by jabbing them with a device called a penetrometer. It measures the force required to penetrate the candy wafer to the point of breaking it. This ensures the candies have achieved the correct consistency. When the trays come out of the drying room, workers empty them into a bin that feeds the packaging line. As the candies inch their way down, the colors intermingle, ensuring that every packaged roll will have a random assortment of flavors, the wafers flow into channels, which stand them up on their sides.
Workers grab about two rolls worth, then fill two roll channels of a feeder that moves toward the wrapping station. Another worker fills in the gaps to finalize each roll to exactly 38 pieces. The wrapping machine cuts the printed translucent paper wrapper off a spool and applies a bead of glue to one edge. In a matter of seconds, the machine lifts the roll into the wrapper, seals the edges, and twists the ends closed. As the sealed rolls move on a conveyor belt, heated blocks iron the twisted ends flat. Each roll of candy wafers weighs just 57 g. Workers pack 24 rolls per retail box, then pack the boxes in shipping cases. In addition to the
traditional roll with assorted flavors, the factory also produces all chocolate rolls. While some aspects of production have modernized over the years, the recipe itself hasn't changed much since the first candy wafers rolled off the production line in 1847. A chocolate truffle cake has nothing to do with those rare and pricey fungi that are culinary delicacy. Nor is it directly related to the chocolate truffle. A decadent confection consisting of a chocolate ganache center coated in either chocolate, cocoa powder, or toasted chopped nuts. A chocolate truffle cake has many variations. This version features a flowerless chocolate truffle cake base under a layer of chocolate marble cheesecake garnished with fudge ganache. To make the cheesecake layer, they begin
with cream cheese. They mix for 3 to four minutes to soften it, then blend in sugar and salt. Next, they add sour cream to make the cheesecake creamier and fluffier. The last ingredients are whole eggs blended with vanilla extract. Another 3 to 4 minutes of mixing completes the batter. To make the chocolate truffle cake base, they combine water, sugar, corn syrup, and cream of tartar, which is a leavenning agent that works in flowerless cakes like this one. It also prevents the sugar they just added from crystallizing. While heating those ingredients to a boil, they soften butter in a mixer. Then add melted semieet chocolate, which
contains vanilla extract. They mix for another 5 minutes or so until the chocolate is thoroughly blended in. Then they add the boiled ingredients, then coffee syrup, then blended whole eggs. A final 5 minutes of mixing and the chocolate truffle cake batter is ready. They pump it into the funnel-shaped feeder of a depositor. Workers meanwhile line aluminum cake pans with silicone and place them on a conveyor belt. The depositor is set up to squirt exactly 828 ml of the thick chocolate truffle cake batter into each pan.
They pump the thinner cheesecake batter to the feeder of a second depositor. which squirts an identical amount of cheesecake batter into the pan. This batter is much lighter than the dense chocolate truffle cake batter. So rather than blend, the two batters form separate layers. Using a squeeze bottle, they drizzle on some extra chocolate truffle cake batter and drag a knife back and forth, creating what's known in pastry making as a Napoleon style design. They put the pans in the oven for 90 minutes at 113°. The long baking time at a relatively low temperature ensures the heat penetrates the dense truffle batter gradually.
Otherwise, the outside of the cake would burn before the inside is fully baked. The cakes cool at room temperature, then go into a freezer overnight. The next day, workers easily pop the rocksolid cakes from the pans thanks to that silicone liner. They place the cake on a cardboard circle. Then with a pastry bag, garnish the edge with fudge ganache. The ganache is made of heavy cream, corn syrup, and the same melted chocolate they put in the truffle cake batter. They place the finished chocolate marble truffle cake into an automated cake slicer. The turntable rotates after each strike of the blade until the machine has cut the cake into 12 slices and separated them with paper dividers.
They wrap the cake in a cardboard band printed with the brand name. Then they put the dessert through a machine which encases the cake in plastic film, then applies heat to shrink the film taut. To serve this decadent dessert, you let it defrost at room temperature for 4 to 5 hours or in the fridge overnight. Impatient choahholics take note. You can also defrost a slice in the microwave in just 30 seconds. When life gives you lemons, why bother making lemonade when you can indulge in a luscious lemon tart? Not too sour, not too sweet, a lemon tart is a dectable dessert that you can take the time to make yourself or leave to the baking pros and buy readymade.
This thaw and serve lemon tart has a shortbread shell and a creamy lemon filling topped with buttercream flowers. It's the creation of this commercial bakery where each batch of dough produced in this industrial mixer yields 449 tart shells. The first step is to lightly blend margarine, sugar, and salt for 2 or 3 minutes. Next, they add pasteurized eggs and mix for about 2 minutes at slow speed because fast mixing would make the dough too tight, causing it to crack. They add white flour and continue mixing slowly until the ingredients are well blended. Once the dough is ready, workers put it through what is actually a hamburger forming machine. It extrudes 132 g dough patties. Workers take three at a time
and place them smack in the middle of a non-stick aluminum tart pan. Then they mount the pan on a press, covering it with plastic to prevent the dough from sticking to the dye, which now strikes the pan, flattening and spreading the dough evenly. The pans now go into the oven where they rotate for 23 to 24 minutes at a temperature of 177° C. The dough bakes into a shortbread tart shell. Lemon juice and lemon oil are the key flavoring ingredients of the creamy lemon filling. First, workers melt margarine on a stove. Then they mix in sugar, lemon powder, and to thicken the mix, food starch. After blending for about 2 minutes, they add eggs.
Then mix for another 5 to 8 minutes until all the ingredients are well blended. They pour in the lemon juice and lemon oil, which they've boiled. Heating these acidic ingredients prevents the fats from curdling. When the filling is ready, they remove the bowl from the mixer and move it over to the depositing line where a pump transfers the contents to the hopper that feeds the depositor. The depositor is preset to squirt precisely 624 g of lemon filling in each tart. The filled tarts go onto baking sheets, then into the oven to bake for 11 minutes.
The lemon tarts come out of the oven, cool at room temperature for 2 to three hours, then go into a freezer overnight. The next day, workers remove the frozen tarts from the pans, which requires no prying as the pans have a false bottom that pops out easily. Workers slice off the false bottom. They gently remove any specks of browning. Then spray on a light layer of glaze made from apricots to add a hint of sweetness. The glaze also prevents the filling from cracking when the frozen tart is thawed for serving. They put the tart into an automated cake slicer. The turntable rotates after each strike of the blade until the tart is cut into 12 slices with papers in between each one. This format is designed for restaurants who serve the dessert by the slice.
Workers embellish each slice with a flower made of buttercream, a decadent mixture of butter, egg whites, and sugar. They complete each flower with a dot of lemon filling in the center. The lemon tart is finished. They wrap it in a cardboard cake band printed with the brand name. They seal the tart in plastic film, insert it into a retail box, and ship it frozen to the store or restaurant. To serve this dessert, you simply defrost at room temperature for about a half hour, then savor its lemony flavor with zest. As any choahholic can attest, there's no end to the flavors you can pair with chocolate. One longtime favorite combination is milk chocolate and peanut
butter. The saltiness of the peanut butter is the perfect foil to the sweetness of the milk chocolate. This bar features a thick layer of milk chocolate around a sweet, salty, and crunchy peanut butter candy center. Making that peanut butter candy center is the tricky part. To make the candy part of it, they combine liquid sugar, corn syrup, coconut oil, and molasses. They mix and heat these ingredients for about 8 minutes. Then they pour the cooked candy into a large stainless bowl. Next, they add leftovers from the previous batch of candy that didn't get used in the last production of chocolate
bars. They call these leftovers rework because they rework them into this new batch. Once the rework has softened up a bit into the hot new candy, they empty the bowl onto a cold stainless steel table. They blend the candy until the rework gradually melts and the two merge into a sweet gooey mass. Once the candy has cooled a bit, workers fold it up and carry it over to the pulling station. There they make a pocket in the center and fill it with vanilla extract. They start up the pulling machine, which stretches the candy non-stop for about 5 minutes. This infuses the candy with air so that its consistency resembles
crunchy taffy rather than hard candy. Then they transfer the candy to a belt that transports it to the weaving machine, which will weave in the peanut butter. The machine's roller first flattens the candy into a thin sheet. Then a pump draws piping hot peanut butter from this tank and deposits it in a generous layer onto the candy sheet. Workers then roll up the sheet. When the roll reaches a specific diameter, they fold it and place it on a blank sheet, meaning a sheet without peanut butter on it.
The next roller presses the folded roll flat onto the blank sheet. Workers roll up the blank sheet, sealing the peanut butter candy inside. This complex assembly is what forms the flaky layers in the chocolate bar's center. Workers now round it out between two rollers and feed it to the rope sizer. It stretches the peanut butter candy into a rope the exact diameter of the center of the chocolate bar. The next machine makes a pinch mark every 12.5 cm, the length of a chocolate bar. The linked centers then enter a cooling tunnel. Temperature 7°.
They exit 5 minutes later, rigid. As they drop to the next conveyor belt, they separate. Then they pass through a second refrigerated tunnel, which finishes cooling them. The centers move into lanes that feed the enrober, the machine that will coat them with chocolate. Workers make sure the centers are in single file and properly spaced. The enrober is like a confectionary car wash. The centers pass through a hot rinse of milk chocolate. Then an overhead dryer blows off the excess, leaving a layer of chocolate that's 3 mm thick. The bars enter a final cooling tunnel to harden the chocolate. Workers transfer what are now finished chocolate peanut butter bars to a conveyor belt that lines them up for packaging. As the bars approach the wrapping
machine, the infeeder arranges them in single file. Rolls of printed plastic film unwind into the machine's forming box, which in the blink of an eye folds, wraps, and heat seals the film around each passing bar. A revolving knife slices the wrapper between bars. Then it's off to the packaging department where workers pack them 24 to a box. These chocolate peanut butter bars are ready to be devoured by anyone in the mood for a crunchy, sweet, and salty chocolate snack. Blueberries are one of nature's healthiest foods. They're low in calories, low in sodium, virtually fat-free, a good source of fiber, packed with vitamin C, high in manganese, and full of antioxidants. And freezing blueberries doesn't
compromise any of the nutritional value. North and South America grow most of the world's blueberries. The length of the harvest varies by climate. In the south, it spans April to September. Further north, mid June to mid August, at this state-of-the-art blueberry farm, a mechanical harvester straddles the row of blueberry plants and shakes the leaves with vibrating fingers. The berries fall to a sloped floor below and roll down into side conveyor belts. The belts dump the berries into onboard bins, which trucks transport from the field to the onsite packing plant. The plant has two separate production lines,
one for berries to be shipped out fresh, and this one for berries to be shipped out frozen. Workers empty the bins into a hopper, which feeds the berries onto a conveyor belt. A vibrating conveyor belt then fies the berries under a blower that suctions up loose leaves and twigs. Then the blueberries tumble down a waterfall. Stones and debris settle in the ledges. The berries land in a wash tank. Most of the ripe ones sink to the bottom while most of the unripe ones float on top where workers can easily scoop them out.
The berries exit the wash tank with fewer unripe ones among them. The mesh belt vibrates to gently shake off water. Then it runs the berries through the first of two color sorters. The machine's camera is preset to ignore the color blue and detect only green and red. Whenever a green or red berry passes, the camera sends a signal to the computer identifying its exact location. so that one of 136 air jets blows it off the belt to a collection trough below. The ripe blueberries fly over the top onto a conveyor belt that takes them to the freezer tunnel. The temperature inside is -34° C.
5 to 7 minutes later, the berries exit the tunnel frozen solid. They immediately pass through a second color sorder which catches any unripe berries. Then workers perform a final visual inspection. After passing through a metal detector, the berries drop into a pre-programmed scale that weighs out the specific quantity being packaged. Meanwhile, in an on-site lab, government trained inspectors pull samples off the line every 20 minutes for grading, which they determined by assessing factors such as color, aroma, and defects. The frozen berries go into a freezer until shipped out by freezer truck. The fresh berry production line is similar to the frozen line, minus the wash tank and of course the freeze tunnel. However, the color sorders on
this line are even more high-tech. Not only are they set to detect red and green berries, but they also have a firmness detector, which by bouncing each berry on a pad, can identify blue ones too soft to have at least a 12-day refrigerated shelf life. Air jets blow those soft berries off the conveyor so they can be transferred to the frozen berry lo. The rest continue to a final visual inspection. The fresh blueberries are ready for packaging. This electronic fill machine is preset to weigh out the specific quantity they're packaging. In this case,.9 kg containers.
It drops that quantity of berries into an awaiting plastic container. The final stop on the packaging line is the flat seal machine. It applies a printed plastic film to the top of the container, melting and bonding it to the perimeter with a touch of heat. The film has ventilation holes because fresh blueberries require air. From here, the containers go off to a refrigerated warehouse to await shipping to the store by refrigerated truck. And provided they remain refrigerated, the
blueberries remain fresh and juicy for 10 to 12 days.
