Growth Leads to Expansion for Fresh-Cut Processor

True Leaf Farms has experienced a 75 percent growth rate in three of the past four years. The company, based in the Salinas Valley in California, ships primarily to customers in the Midwest and on the East Coast. The company supplies fresh-cut arugula, spinach and spring mix products to foodservice and retail customers.

Growing demand lead True Leaf Farms to look for a new processing line last year and that search lead them to Key Technology. And in April 2005, the company installed a new Freshline Direct Stream line, which is an integrated multi-stage wash and automatic drying system. The line is a bin-to-bag turnkey system.

“The dryer controls the infeed of product to the wash system,” said Jared Gill, plant manager. “A weigh-belt near the front of the line meters the product into the processing line depending on what the bagger at the end of the line can handle.”

Fast streaming ensures product is layered evenly throughout the system, providing consistent wash pressure and dryness levels, with no need to stage or store wet product.

“This integrated system helps us produce the highest quality product while at the same time, we’ve reduced labor and improved production efficiencies,” Gill said.

Their new line is modular and can be designed to handle from 1,000 pounds per hour to more than 20,000 pounds per hour. True Leaf Farms has installed a second bagger on the line and throughput will be 8,000 pounds per hour, operating two shifts a day, six days a week.

True Leaf Farms uses a three-stage wash system. Each washer features a different agitation method to ensure all surfaces of the product are washed evenly and gently so foreign material is dislodged and separated from the product. The wash system also removes field heat. True Leaf Farms selected an oversized water chiller so they would have the capability to bring 70˚F product down to 34˚F within the wash.

“Prior to installing the new line, we only had experience using batch dryers. With the new automatic dryers, we’ve doubled throughput in half the floorspace,” Gill said. “But most importantly, we’ve improved product quality by eliminating the large mass of wet product that must be loaded into a single dryer drum at a single time.”

The automatic dryer True Leaf Farms selected features a four-drum configuration that enables the dryer to continuously handle a constant, even flow of product. Spiral layering creates consistent centrifugal pressure to the entire contents of each drum load, which results in efficient drying. Smooth and uninterrupted drum loading and unloading reduces product damage.

“Each product has different characteristics,” Gill said. “Even within one product category, we see product textures that are stronger or weaker over time, based on the conditions in the field. Depending on the product and its characteristics, we adjust the dryer.”

As it is important with all fresh-cut operations, True Leaf Farms places food safety at the top of the list. They designed their new line with the space to place a person to visually inspect all produce going through the line, Gill said. “We’re careful to make sure that our machinery is kept in good repair,” he said. “Machinery gives you the opportunity, if it’s designed correctly, to greatly reduce the risks of food safety hazards.” For example, True Leaf Farms constantly monitors the pH and chlorine levels of all washes. Rather than having a person check that every hour, there is a computer that continuously monitors those levels. “If the levels get out of whack, it will correct it immediately,” Gill said.