Pineapple canning process

Four cultivars account for the majority of pineapples used for canning: Cayenne, Singapore, Queen and Red Spanish.

Good-quality canned fruit is only attained when the fruit is just ripe, and every step is taken to process with least possible delay.

Harvested pineapples are unloaded from bulk bins at the cannery and, each pineapple is washed and graded for size to determine where the fruit will be sent.

The pineapple is then sent through a Ginaca machine that has been adjusted for a proper fruit size. This machine is entirely automatic and removes the inedible portion of the fruit from the edible parts.  This machine removes the shell, cores the fruit, and trims about 1.3 cm of the bottom and 1.9 cm at the top, greatly simplifying these operations. The final operation of the Ginaca machine removes the core from the centre of the fruit.

The rest of the pineapple is sent to be crushed into juiced and/or processed into livestock feed. Meanwhile, the fruit cylinder is inspected and hand trimmed to remove any defects or eyes, which may have escaped the first operation.

The fruit is then cut into slices, chunks, tidbits or crushed pieces or is pressed onto juice depending on its processing line destination.

Pineapple slices are usually graded and manually packed in cans. Sugar s added to the final product, which ensures certain homogeneity. Slices that have been cut either too thick or too thin, and broken pieces not good enough for canning as slices, are used in crushed pineapple or juice.

The cans are then sealed and cooked at 211 ° F for 11 minutes in a pasteurization process.

Notes:
*Slices or spiral slices or whole slices or rings: uniformly cut circular slices or rings cut across the axis of the peeled, cored pineapple cylinders.

*Tidbits: reasonably uniform, wedge-shaped sectors cut from slices or portion thereof, predominantly from 8 to 13 mm thick.

*Chunks: short, thick pieces cut from thick slices and/or form peeled cored pineapple and predominantly more than 12 mm in both thickness and width, and less than 38 mm in length.

*Ginaca machine is named after the man who invented it.
Pineapple canning process