Kathy Davis
Communications Office
When you grab that pretty, shiny apple on the store shelf,
you may not imagine the journey it’s taken to get there. In the packing house
alone, apples travel a path that illustrates modern agricultural practices.
Apples aren’t just
a Washington icon, like salmon, coffee and airplanes. They’re also a $2 billion
industry producing millions of apples each year. Those apples all need to be
harvested, sorted, packed and inspected.
Last month I got an eye-opening education when I toured
apple and potato packing facilities with Ken Tuttle, supervisor of WSDA’s
Quincy Fruit and Vegetable Inspection office. As primarily a food consumer
who’s relatively new to the agricultural industry, I was struck by the movement
of the process.
From the large wooden bins in which the apples arrive in the
warehouse, their first step is a bath. Each bin is lifted mechanically onto a
skid that lowers it into a pool of water to wash the apples. With nose close,
you can smell the chlorine (think swimming pool) that sanitizes.
Drifting and spinning
The water floats the fruit out of their field bins, becoming
a river of apples drifting off on their way. They’re dried by spinning on soft,
covered rollers and being heated in an enclosed metal container.
Why are store apples so shiny? Because they’re sprayed with
a fine mist of food grade wax.
They roll along, randomly splitting off onto three belts
that run past workers who visually check for defective fruit. Along with
experienced human eyes, technology helps sort. The apples are also whisked into
a computerized machine where a camera and scale determines size and grade.
Placement onto trays and into boxes is largely, but not
totally, automated. Humans help make sure each round fruit is properly
positioned. Colorful shipping boxes are stacked into tall, wide blocks on
pallets. Stacks await shipment to such destinations as Portland, Brooklyn and
China.
Storing year-round
Apple harvesting occurs over a relatively short period, yet
demand is year-round. So some of the crop is stored in a controlled environment
to maintain freshness and allow for later packing.
These rooms look like over-sized racket ball courts with
those big wooden bins of apples piled to the ceiling. Along with being chilled,
the oxygen level is reduced in the room. Before workers enter, the atmosphere
is adjusted to replace life-sustaining oxygen.
These packing facilities are daily working environments for
our WSDA fruit and vegetable inspectors. For someone who resides in a
cubicle most days, it was an eye-popping new world.
