Vegetable grower sorts out canned green bean processing

Since 1954, McCall Farms has been growing and canning vegetables in the US. Typically, the business produced 18 million cans of green beans per year; however, by 2022, its output had skyrocketed to 304 million cans per year. This was largely driven by McCall’s acquisition of a TOMRA 5B optical sorting machine, which has  also helped to enhance product quality and reduce dependence on manual labour.

McCall’s owners and managers were prompted to look into a sorting machine due to difficulties in recruiting and retaining staff. According to Amanda Salisbury, Maintenance Superintendent, the crew was not large enough to ensure the products were sufficiently defect-free.

The TOMRA 5B combines the latest sensor technology with advanced shape algorithms. Its 360° inspection, with smart surround view technology, is designed to boost product quality and ensure removal of foreign material, resulting in an efficient sorting process.

“When the installation engineer set up our programs, we got results above expectations — a 99% removal rate for all defects at TOMRA’s recommended capacity. We are achieving more consistent sorting and our product quality has risen substantially. We can now produce a consistently high-grade product while maintaining our preferred production speed. This has played an essential role in boosting production volumes — an increase to 16 times more cans in just four years,” Salisbury said.

According to the business, the machine reduced McCall’s dependency on hand sorting, reducing its production footprint and leading to a more consistent process. It is also easy to maintain and clean.

In addition to the two Sentinel II sorters and single TOMRA 5B currently sorting fresh-cut green beans for canning, McCall Farms’ Effingham plant now also uses two TOMRA Nimbus BSI+ sorters — with TOMRA’s unique Biometric Signature Identification technology to detect both the colour and chemical composition of objects — for in-shell peanuts.