Growers Express

Cooling and Testing

Cooling is the final step in our growing process, and it is vital to ensuring a fresh, high quality product by removing the field heat from the harvested plant. Harvesting is sometimes performed in 70 to 80-degree weather, which means your produce is hot! Removing field heat from the freshly harvested commodities reduces nutrient degradation, water loss (wilting), and slows down micro-organisms that cause decay. This is why it is so important to quickly transport the produce from the field to the cooler within a 3-hour window. It is also important that the cooling process is not interrupted, and that the cold chain is consistent until the product is consumed.

Depending on the type of commodity, there are a variety of methods to remove the field heat out of the produce:

• Vacuum-cooling is a method where the produce is put into large cylinders and most of the air is evacuated out. The vacuum causes the surface water to evaporate quickly, lowering the temperature. This method is usually used on leafy greens.
• Hydro-cooling is a process that uses chilled water to rapidly reduce the temperature. This is the quickest method to reduce the temperature but can only be used on produce that is not adversely affected by water, such as cauliflower and celery.
• Icing is an efficient method used on dense produce such as broccoli. Pallets are inserted in the icing machine where tiny ice crystals are injected into the carton through the side holes, quickly reducing the temperature and settling on commodities with high respiration rates.
• Forced-Air Cooling consists of a cooling room with large fans. The cold circulates the room and through the air holes in the cartons, allowing the cold air to penetrate the produce and reducing the core temperature quickly.

Once the produce is cooled, its optimal temperature is 34 to 36 degrees Fahrenheit. It is then stored in large warehouses, each about the size of a football field. The harvest crews and sales team coordinate the shipping schedule of these pallets of produce to your local supermarket. We take great care in every step along the way to ensure the product is in an optimal growing environment and cooled by the proper methods, delivering the freshest, safest, and highest quality produce to your local supermarkets.

Quality Testing

The final step prior to shipping is a detailed quality assessment test, during which careful review and grading of the products and their packaging are performed by specially-trained personnel. Quality scores must meet the high level of TrueTrac requirements in order to proceed to shipping. Properties such as color, appearance, packing quality, package condition, texture, and carton condition are all carefully reviewed and graded for each product.