Grading

Dry walnuts are then emptied form the drying bins and placed into storage containers ready for grading. Shipping containers have walnuts stored of a known ownership and variety. A selected container is then tipped and walnuts fed into the grading line equipment. In sequence the walnuts are aspirated, colour sorted, sized, visually graded and then bagged.

Samples are taken as walnuts are drawn from the drying bins and quality assurance tests are done on these samples to test for size, exterior blemishes on the shell, kernel colour and kernel yield. A photo is then taken of the 100 nut sample of cracked out walnuts. This information is then used as an aid to market the walnuts. Electronic quality information is sent to prospective customers for their viewing.

All operations are part of a quality assurance system with everyone involved having a job description. The process has HACCP accreditation.