In Woodburn, a small western Oregon city about 30 miles south of Portland the North Marion Fruit Company was established as an independent fruit processing enterprise nearly 40 years ago. Taking and maintaining the quality root, it began with buying and selling of blueberries and blackberries, and as its markets expanded, virtually every kind of fruit grown in its area. In 1964 it moved to a new and modern warehouse with facilities to freeze and store, in frozen form, an increasing quantity of fruit.
Although they continued to hold to their quality standards, later owners lost interest in further development of products and markets, and sales volume declined over a period of years. Processing of some berries was discontinued, reducing volume still further.
That downward trend is now being reversed by present owners Ed and Louise Zack and their manager Ken Stewart. “We installed some new and modern equipment, primarily to increase and improve our IQF capability and to more fully utilize our more than adequate 32,000 sq.ft.of space for processing and storage,” Ed Zack says. “We will be going back into our former varieties that had been abandoned and, quite possibly, into cherries and plums as well. In 1983 we packed four to five varieties of blackberries again, as well as raspberries and strawberries. And we are looking at some specialty markets, as we know the interest is there.”
The turnaround has already taken place with the 1983 season, when the company processed some 4.5-million pounds of frozen product. These have been packed in 39 lb. cartons and 400 lb. drums for shipment to markets around the country as well as to some buyers for export.
Before the company’s Frigoscandia compact FloFREEZE went on line in June 1983, North Marion Fruit Co. had processed a limited quan-tity of berries by individually quick freezing them on trays in the below-zero storage room. However, “this was a labor intensive method that would have been impractical for us to extend much further. And this is a quality market that we wanted to expand for those fresh fruit products that could qualify for it. We also knew that when growers found that we were a premium market for premium berries they would make greater effort to satisfy it,” says Ken Stewart.
With the new IQF freezer they have found the means to reach that IQF market for themselves and for their growers. In 1983 alone approximately one-third of the pack was individually quick frozen in the FloFREEZE. “We are aiming at a ratio of 50 % or more in near future,” says Stewart.
Despite its compact size, the Frigoscandia FloFREEZE IQFs 5000lbs. of berries an hour on the average, to a maximum of 7,000 lbs. per hour with the best fruit. The FloFREEZE is specifically designed to handle sensitive products such as berries gently, and move them along to the outfeed end of the tunnel without mechanical damage to the fruit. This is accomplished by the design of the deep stainless steel tray through which the berries move, as there is no moving belt. Instead, the bottom of the tray is perforated so that the current of frigid air comes up from beneath, lifting the product on a cushion of air that moves it along to the outfeed end. Within the freezing zone there is latitude for adjustment of temperature that can and should be adjusted to the berries and their condition.
“Loganberries and red raspberries are the most sensitive and -10º is the best air temperature for them, although there are variables within different shipments of the same fruit. Below a certain temperature the berries become more brittle and subject therefore to breaking. We take this into consideration and watch our berries and air temperature closely, ” Stewart says.
Precooling of berries is also important, he observes, and the plant has two precooling rooms, each with a capacity of 60000lbs. The berries are typically held for 24 hours in these precooling rooms before processing and here, too, the temperature is important, with the more sensitive berries being cooled to a somewhat lower temperature.
In the processing line berries are washed and sorted on washing and sorting belts before freezing. Berries going into the Frigoscandia move through a dewatering shaker. Fines are eliminated by passing over sizing riddles and berries are normally sized both before and after freezing.
Примечания к тексту:
to hold to the standards –выдерживать стандарты
turnaround – поворот, изменение позиции
lb.(=pound) – фунт (ок.500г.)
grower – зд. фермер, поставляющий ягоду
переработчику
individually quick freezing (IQF) – быстрое поштучное
замораживание
outfeed end – разгрузочная сторона
latitude – широкие возможности
loganberry – логанова ягода (гибрид малины с ежевикой)
fines – «мелочь» (мелкая ягода)
1. Ответьте на вопросы по содержанию текста.
1.When was the North Marion Fruit Company established?
2.What products has the company been processing?
3.Why was the processing discontinued?
4.How did present owners manage to reverse that downward trend?
5.What kind of freezing equipment did the company install to increase its capability?
2. Опишите принцип работы и устройство холодильного
оборудования, которое помогло компании решить проблемы.
3. Переведите следующие предложения на английский язык
письменно.
1.При определенной температуре ягоды становятся очень хрупкими и деформируются.
2.На заводе имеются две камеры для предварительного охлаждения ягод.
3.На протяжении многих лет компания придерживалась высоких стандартов качества.
4. Переведите резюме этого текста на русский язык
Berries move up the conveyor to the infeed end of this new freezer. Its ability to IQF 5,000 to 7,000 pounds per hour has helped boost production to 4.5-million pounds
5. Напишите краткое изложение текста на русском языке. Прокомментируйте часть текста, которая показалась вам наиболее интересной.
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