Processing perfection
To ensure our customers get great product every time, we also invested in our own processing facilities to control every aspect of the hulling, shelling, sorting and packing process.
Our number one priority is quality. After harvest, our almonds are hulled and shelled in our facility, then graded by size and tested by outside food safety laboratories. All products receive five individual sorts. First product passes through the Bühler E1C for high efficiency foreign material removal. Second, almonds pass through the Bühler A-Series for C/S, splits and serious damage removal. After electronic sorting we do a final hand sort coupled with state of the art X-ray detection and metal detection before being packaged for our customer.
Our almonds are then carefully packed in 2,200 pound fiber bins or 50 pound cartons, depending on the customer’s request.
Each shipment is inspected by the United States Department of Agriculture, which certifies the final grade, size and variety of the shipment. Any additional laboratory sample testing requested by our customers is done at this time, as well as any other testing or inspections required for export markets.
At Twin Commodities, Inc., we sell to quality-seeking customers around the world, including Japan, China, Hong Kong, Spain, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands and the United Arab Emirates.
Trace-Back Procedures
Because we grow all of our own almonds, Twin Commodities provides our customers with the most robust traceability program in the industry – the ability to trace every individual box of almonds back to the exact orchard block it came from. Here’s how it works:
- Harvest information, along with all procedures done to each block within an orchard, is logged throughout the growing season.
- First loads of product are given lot codes when coming from fields into the sheller.
- Once pre-cleaned, product is transferred into storage tanks and lot codes are retained on the outside of tanks.
- Once shelled, each bin is given a primary bin tag with same lot code as on the storage tank.
- Bins are then run through the sizer and receive a secondary bin tag with lot codes retained from the primary bin tag.
- After sizing, bins are electronically sorted, weights are recalculated and quality control testing is logged. Bins retain lot codes on their secondary bin tags.
- Once electronically sorted, bins are processed over the hand-sorting tables and through X-ray. Bins are given final weights and additional quality control testing is carried out. Lot codes are retained on each bin.
- Once a load is completed, all lot codes used to fulfill that load are converted to corresponding lot numbers and are printed on every individual carton or bin.
- Lot numbers are also listed on the Shipping Manifest and Bill of Lading.