The Peeler Apple

Tree Top field representatives work closely with growers year-round. They learn about the condition and size of the harvest so Tree Top can plan for efficient production. Frequent meetings between growers and field reps offer a continuing opportunity for good, two-way communication. In a typical Washington state harvest, about 75 percent of the fruit goes directly to market. Tree Top receives more than 60 percent of the remainder. One third of the apples Tree Top receives are peelers, destined for processing into ingredient products. The Cooperative processes an average of 150,000 tons of peelers annually.

Fresh apples are hand sorted by the packing facility. Random pressure checks are performed with a probe to measure the firmness of peeler fruit. The fruit must be firm enough to peel and cut without crumbling. Peelers are conveyed gently to storage bins by specially designed materials handling systems which limit bruising.

Bins are stacked and shipped by truck from as many as 150 warehouses to one of the Tree Top production facilities. The fruit is thoroughly washed and rinsed in a pressure wash prior to processing. Then it's on to the peeler machine.

In a highly automated series of steps, each apple is loaded into a peeler and, in a matter of seconds, is peeled and cored. Dozens of automated peelers peel and core 110 apples per minute; more than 400 million in an average year. Peeled apples are sliced and diced into a variety of shapes and sizes to customer specifications. Part of the value added by Tree Top is the ability to deliver customized products that are just right for specific applications like pies, cakes, breakfast foods, and pastries.

Precision cutting equipment maintains critical particle dimensions to one sixteenth of an inch. Pieces can be custom-cut from half-apple to one-eighth-inch particle size.

For certain products, apple pieces are pumped through an anti-browning process that helps the fruit retain a fresh appearance. All ingredient particles follow one of two paths to finished product: drying or freezing.

Most of the products are dried, and for these a trip through a 350-foot-long gas-fired dryer is the next step. Arriving apple slices are 86 percent moisture at this point. After 45 minutes in the five-stage dryer, however, the moisture content has been reduced to 24 percent. Another 90 minutes of drying lowers the moisture to 3 percent. Finished products of 3 and 24 percent moisture are standard.

An increasing percentage of total ingredient production is frozen at 10 degrees below zero, boxed, and shipped to customers in refrigerated trucks. Most frozen apple products are used in apple pies - including some of America's most celebrated name brands. Tree Top apples are used in hundreds of consumer products such as pies, cakes, cookies, cereals, and muffins.