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EnglishPlant Process
Processing Plant
Our plant is one of the most modern in Chile and Latin America. It has an efficient design that considers the intelligent flow of the fruit, such as the construction and health requirements required by the BRC and HACCP norms. All the processing equipment is made of stainless steel and the majority of them were imported from California. The design puts special emphasis on control of the different stages of the processes that assure quality in every moment.
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Industrial Process
1.Freshing Gradings:
Before being dried the fruit is graded for size, in order to achieve a uniform drying process. One must know that the smaller fruit takes less time to dry and an excessive drying period could make the flesh very dark.
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2.Drying:
The fruit drying process is done in two ways, depending on the requirements of each client.
The first is the sun dried system, where first is select a place in open air that has good exposure to the sun and has sufficient wind to insure the best drying conditions. Then, the ground is covered with a special fabric, in order to eliminate possible soil contamination, and over the fabric are placed the fruit. In the measure that the fruit is losing humidity, the fruit will be moved in order to insure an even dehydration. This system takes around one day and finishes when the fruit reaches a moisture level of 18 and 19%.
The second system is the air forced system, which consist of placing the fruit over wooden trays, which are piled up one over another and placed in a tunnel by way of specually designed cart. The temperature and humidity conditions inside the tunnel are regulated in order to achieve a homogeneous drying process. This process takes between 24 and 30 hours, depending on the size of the fruit and sugar content. -
3.Dry Storages:
Once the fruit is dehydrated, it is graded for size again and placed again into bins waiting to go into the processing plant. The bins must bewell labeled in order to not lose at any time the trazability of the product. Most prune are packed to order. Once an order is received, the prunes are re-hydrated, sterilized, put through a final inspection and packaged for shipping.
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4.Grading:
The grading consist in to separate the fruit by size.
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5.Tenderizing:
The fruit is re-hydrated between 28 and 24% humidity according to our clients requirements. This is done by way of a steam shower at 110 Celsius degrees for 20 minutes.
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6.Pitting:
The pitting is done with Ashlock machines that have the capacity to pit 700 pounds per hour per machine.
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7.Sorting:
After the pitting is done, the fruit is examined to remove any fruit that might have been damaged during the process or contains pit fragments.
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8.Sorbate Spraying:
Our equipment insure that each box receives exactly the same amount of preservative that the client request.
