Sweet Onion Sizing Super Colossal 4-1/2″ and Up Yellow, Red, and White Colossal 3-3/4″ and Up Yellow, Red, and White Large/Jumbo 3″ and Up Yellow, Red, and White Medium 2″ to 3-1/4″ Yellow, Red, and White Pre-Pack 1-3/4″ to 3″ Yellow and White Small 1″ to 2-1/4″ Yellow, Red, and White Boiler 1″ to 1-7/8″ Yellow and White Creamer Under 1″ Yellow and...
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Once the onions are harvested, they are hand-graded by humans into U.S. #1, U.S. #1 Export or U.S. #2 commercial grade quality. The USDA says a U.S. #1-Grade consists of onions of similar varietal characteristics which are mature, fairly firm; free from soft rot of wet breakdown, sprouts, bottlenecks, scallions, and cull material. The onions shall also be free from damage caused by seedstems, sunscald, sunburn, roots, moisture, freezing, mold or other disease, insects,...
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Beautiful, perfect onions sell well in bulk, all by themselves. The rest are packaged in bags made of varying materials including poly, mesh and combinations thereof. But there is far more to packaging than materials. Today, innovations in packaging allow designers to use bright colors, images and graphics to entice impulse purchasing, build brand awareness and promote customer loyalty. Premium packaging requires premium packing machines, but today growers need not...
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The packinghouse or, packing shed, has been an American institution since the industrial revolution, though Mirriam-Webster claims its first use was in 1796. Simply defined, the packinghouse is where food is processed for distribution. Processing includes receiving produce from the fields, then storing, grading, cleaning, sizing and packing the crops for distribution to another packing facility for specialized packaging or to retail stores for sale to consumers....
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This staging area shows 50-lb. bags neatly organized and stacked for packing into the truck. Notice the absence of pallets. Not ideal for shipping onions, but workable in some areas and in cases where the onions don’t have to travel far.
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It’s true more bags will fit on a truck without pallets, but this sort of packing protocol is not acceptible for long-distance travel. The process for packing the truck is often dictated by the receiver, who may require pallets, strapping and possibly shrink wrapping too. Some receivers may even require that their produce is palleted according to their specifications and shipped in air-cushioned trailers with refrigeration.
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5425 US HWY 1 • Grant, Fla. 32949
Hours: 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. Mon.-Fri.
Phone: 321-427-2211