Processing Cranberries
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Here is the process.
After Harvest
After the cranberries are grown and harvested, they are loaded onto a vibrating conveyor belt and cleaning station where workers use their brushes to help weed out any leaves, stems and anything else that happened to fall into the cranberry pickings.
They are then scooped up and onto trucks to be shipped out to a processing plant. Once there they are placed into large wooden crates or bins, and frozen for several months.
After a time they are defrosted and some of them are used to make cranberry juice.
The ones that aren’t are again sorted out. They are run through a giant sifter that has tiny holes so that the small ones fall through, and the larger ones continue on through the process.
The larger ones make it to grading tables, where they have employees standing right there removing the ones that are substandard. Because it’s difficult to weed out all of the bad ones, an electronic sorter then scans for color and further weeds out the ones that are not bright red.
How are Cranberries Grown
For the cranberries that are still standing after this elimination process, they will either go on to be freshly packaged or dried.
The ones that will be dried are automatically sent through a machine where they are to be seeded, cut in half and pressed. Then they are soaked in a solution of water and sugar for taste, and then evenly spaced out to dry at a temperature of about 80 Celsius (176 Fahrenheit). After about three hours they are ready for packaging.
The fresh ones are put in plastic bags and shipped out to your local grocery store.
Hope this helps.
– Cranby
