Cherry packing app

Cherry Packing App for 100% accurate cherry processing 

View Packing App Specifications.

Cherries represent special challenges for packers, processors, and value adders.  The small and rapid harvest window, combined with the extreme fragility and perishability of cherries means packers must be agile and efficient in their cherry processing activities.  Farmsoft manages cherry packing with precision ensuring rapid processing from the moment cherries are harvested through to storage and distribution, or IQF or value adding and further processing. 

Cherries do not contain stored carbohydrates like apples and pears, therefore have a shorter storage and shelf life, but good fruit quality can be maintained in cold storage for a couple of months. Cherries are difficult to handle because they are very susceptible to bruising (pitting), and extra care is taken on the packing line to eliminate mechanical injuries. Packers refer to a “cold-chain,” which signifies keeping cherries cool during the whole process chain (harvest through the packing process, shipping, retail markets, and until they are consumed.)

Cherry packing app manages entire packing process from delivery to shipment

To start the cherry packing process, cherries float onto the packing line on flumes of water, which protect them from bruising and damage.

Orchard debris and leaves are removed from the flumes with nets.

The cherries go through a cluster cutter to cut stems of clusters into single fruit with shorter stems. Fruit is sorted and sized, either manually by trained personnel, or electronically, with a computer. With the computer sorter, multiple images of each cherry are taken, analyzed, and fruit are automatically sorted and sized. Fruit that were singled out are sorted again by hand for culls. Some operations hydro-cool fruit before packing to maintain fruit quality. Cherries are packed into a variety of boxes, clamshells, and bags by size and weight. Cartons are then labeled, palletized, shrink-wrapped and sent to cold storage or refrigerated trucks for shipping.

Cherry Packing App for reduced food & fresh produce waste

Each of the steps taken at the cherry packinghouse are as follows:

Cherry bins are brought in to the facility with a forklift.

The bins are lifted up into the bin dump, where the cherries are dumped into sanitized water (to decrease the impact of the drop on the fruit).

When the cherries are dumped into the water, those that float are removed, and the rest continue on a conveyor belt to continue along the cherry packing line.
When cherries grow and are harvested, they are harvested as clusters and not as individual cherries with an individual stem. As a result, there is a section of the packing line where there are cutters that are meant specifically to cut the bunches so that the cherries come out as individual cherries (not being connected to another cherry via the stem).

The cherries are hand sorted for defects, including decay and splits.

Throughout this process, the same fruit continues down the conveyor belt passing multiple sorters. There are brushes along the line to rotate the fruit so that if there was a blemish on one side of the fruit that was missed by one worker, after the fruit is rotated, another worker will catch it. There are two options for getting rid of the fruit in this case: culls (garbage or animal feed) or redistributed to a secondary market (e.g., double cherries for produce markets).