How Walnuts Are Hulled, Stored, Shelled & Pasteurized

this week on the produce nerd we're going to take you behind the scenes of a walnut processing operation when walnuts are harvested they still contain the hole which is the outer covering of the shell after harvest the holes need to be removed prior to reaching the processor the harvested walnuts are removed from the bottom of the truck where they then travel up the conveyor line to be hand sorted washed fold with an extra radial holing set to get any excess hole or dirt removed from the shell and a final hand sorting step where any discolored nuts or field debris are remove the hold nuts are then transported on a conveyor line to a drying room where they stay until they have reached a desired moisture content when in these separate dryers there are sensors underneath that can detect when the nuts are dried and then the nuts drop from underneath and our transferred on a conveyor line to an awaiting truck when walnuts arrived from the whole word they are stored in one of two ways when they are soared in the both building they are removed from the bottom of the truck and are then transported on a conveyor line into a walnut storage room where the entire large warehouse room is full of walnuts in order to get a view of this we were transported up to the warehouse ceiling at this particular operation there are 16 storage rooms that hold up to 1.6 million pounds of walnuts the second storage option is that the walnuts are removed from the trucks are dumped into wooden bins and are stored until further processing the walnuts enter the shelling machine which removes the walnut kernel from the shell the walnuts are then mechanically sorted out by size resulting in separate bins for large pieces half pieces and small pieces you the bins of walnuts that have already been shelled are dumped onto the laser sorter the walnut kernels pass through one two three lasers that grade the walnut kernels based on their color and ensure that all of the shell has been removed there are three ways in which walnuts are packed the first method is when walnuts are bulk packed folk packed means that the walnuts are packed into boxes that are not in the final packaging for the consumer when they saw this product it will go onto another company that will alter the packaging to make it ready for the final consumer when walnuts are bulk packed they are hand sorted and then are transported to be dumped into bins the second method is when the walnuts are in shell pack in this case the walnuts have not yet been shelled and are still in the bins from storage the walnuts are dumped onto a machine are sized and go through a laser sorter the in shell walnuts are then mechanically packed into large bowl bags these are also not packed into their final packaging once the pallets are complete there shrink-wrap to maintain the integrity of the pallet the third method is when the walnuts are retail packed which means that they are packed into the final packaging that will be on the retail display this is done by dumping the bins of shelled nuts into a machine that weighs out the walnuts to the specified weight where the walnuts are then dropped down into a different part of the machine that packs the walnuts into retail bags and mechanically seals them there is one final hand sorting step prior to the bags going through a metal detector and being packed into boxes the boxes are mechanically sealed and are then loaded onto pallets an optional step that can be done during walnut processing is a pasteurization step which is a process used to kill microorganisms the pasteurization step consists of the walnuts being heated to a very high temperature for a short amount of time they are then transported through a cooling chamber to cool down the nuts and then are transported out and dumped into bins for further handling thank you for watching please subscribe to the produce nerd comm where a new blog will be posted every Tuesday

Channel: The Produce Nerd

Views: 118,464

Rating: 4.7291064 out of 5

Keywords: walnut shelling, walnut shelling machine, walnut shelling process, walnut kernel, Andersen and Sons Shelling, Andersen Shelling, how are walnuts processed, walnut processing, walnut cracking machine, walnut cracking line, walnut packing, walnut cracking, walnut hulling, walnuts, walnut, pasteurization, hand sort, kernel color, California grown, bulk room, california walnuts, California walnuts, Chico california, how are walnut shells removed, laser sorting machine

Id: NrMkxGmFSM0

Length: 6min 19sec (379 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 15 2016