Cut a fresh pineapple on the kitchen chopping board and the slices will vary in diameter, because of the tapering shape of the food. But buy a can of sliced pineapple and the rings are all the same diameter. This is because the pineapples are put through an almost entirely mechanical process to make them fit into the cans.
A machine called a Ginaca processes up to 120 pineapples a minute. It cuts out a cylinder of the pineapples and juicy flesh, removes the horny outer shell, cuts off the shell at top and bottom and punches out the core. A device called an eradicator scraps off surplus flesh adhering to the shell to make crushed pineapple juice.
The cylinders of pineapple flesh are inspected on the conveyor belt my teams of trimmers, who remove remaining fragments of shell and any blemishes. The cylinders are then carried to a slicing machine, which produces the precision-rings. Packers inspect the rings and put them in the cans.
Each can of rings is topped up with either syrup or pineapple juice, mechanically lidded and sealed under vacuum. They are then cooked in pressure cookers known as retorts. Finally, sterilised cans of fruit are cooled in water or by air labelled and packed.
Most of the worlds pineapples are grown in Hawaii., The Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan, Kenya and the Ivory Coast.
Over a three-year period, pineapple plant produces two fruits, each weighing about 4.8lb (2.2kg). To simplify harvesting, the plants are made up to flower at the same time being sprayed with a growth regulator such as ethephon. This means that the fruits all ripen at about same time – between June and September. In Australia there are two harvests, one in May-June and a summer harvest in January.
Picture Credit : Google