February 2022 - 17

that improved their understanding of
how to improve the quality of potatoes
from the field to the consumer's table.
" I think every little bit kind of helps
overall to the bigger picture, " he said.
One factor
process growers as well. Really, it affects
the bottom line of returns going directly
back to the growers. "
Thornton said that the success of the
that seemed to stand
out was some trailers were not always
kept at a temperature range of between
40 and 45 degrees. Thornton said
that when checking the tractor trailer
logs that would find that some trailer
temperatures never dropped below 50
to 55 degrees.
" They're not meeting the conditions
in the trucks that they think they're
getting and that's contributing to some
of this loss in quality, " he said.
Travis Blacker, director of industry
relations for the Idaho Potato
Commission, said that the IPC spent an
estimated total of $250,000 for Olsen
and Thornton's project.
" This project easily paid for itself, "
Blacker said. " This wasn't just for
shippers, this was for all growers. Better
practices and helping with harvest and
handling and storage and packing.
This is not just fresh pack growers but
program could be seen in the reduction
of rejected shipments at the distribution
centers.
" The rejection notice data speaks for
itself, " Thornton said. " We've seen a
steady drop every year in the number of
rejections. "
Thornton
said
that Walmart
has
started applying some of the lessons
learned to other lines of fresh produce.
The key message from the work was
the unity among the fresh industry
to improve their quality controls,
Thornton said.
" I think the best thing about this
project was it brought the whole fresh
industry's attention to 'hey, we got to
work hard to make sure we have quality
potatoes 12 months of the year because
one of our biggest customers is asking
us to do that, " he said. " I think all Nora
and I did was give them some tools and
information, but they did all the work.
" The fact that rejections have gone
down is because shippers have started
paying more attention to the quality
assurance process. "
The success of this project does not
close the chapter on their research.
Their current emphasis is on Clearwater
Russet.
" Just trying to get the idea does that
(Clearwater) susceptibility at some
point change in terms of maturity.
Because we just need to help ourselves
ask the right questions too when some
of these
bruise concerns come in, "
Olsen said. " There's a lot to ask and how
do you start to narrow it down and so
that's some of the future projects that
we're working on. "
Along with that, they are looking at
shatter bruise and its association with
weight loss in storage.
" We know that shatter bruise was
one of the major quality concerns in
the Walmart study. It's also concerns
for disease, dry rot, soft rot, all the
other things, but let's add on another
quality issue that we have is weight loss
in storage and we just want to see that
association as well, " Olsen said.
SUPERIOR Optical Sorting.
Simultaneous Sorting By Quality,
Size and Shape with Top-of-theLine
Camera Technology in a
4 or 12 Lane Configuration
Celox P-UHD
for Potatoes
956.682.6176
www.solutionsbyfox.com
Spudman * February 2022
17
http://www.solutionsbyfox.com
February 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of February 2022
