[0:00]Often considered to be a vegetable, the tomato is actually a fruit. It's grown from the ovary of the plant and it has seeds. It's also the most popular one on the planet. Automation of the canning process in the last century has made that possible, ensuring that tomatoes preserve their number one slot. There are over 2,000 varieties. For canning purposes, they grow a type with a thick skin and firm consistency, so machinery can pick and sort them without damaging the flesh. Rotating clippers cut the vine as the harvester drives over the crop.
[0:39]Once cut, the plants travel on an elevator belt up into the harvester. Inside the harvester, metal prongs shake the tomatoes to free them from the vines. An electronic color sorter rejects the green ones. A conveyor transfers the red ripe tomatoes to a trailer traveling alongside the harvester. Once they have a load of 22 tons, they deliver the tomatoes to the canning factory. Here they fill the trailer with water to float the tomatoes out through a door at the side. The water, dirty from residual soil, drains away through the slats in the belt. The tomatoes land in a clean water-filled channel, and here any rocks sink to the bottom and are removed. The tomatoes float into a big tank, where jets churn up the water for a more gentle cleansing action. The tomatoes then head up to a sorting line and travel over metal bars. Smaller tomatoes fall through the gaps. They'll be used to make tomato juice. The others fly on past 60 tiny cameras that detect pale or yellowish tomatoes. Pneumatic fingers knock those tomatoes out of the batch. It all happens in less than a second. Now it's the human eye that inspects the tomatoes. They send any rejects to another part of the factory to make juice. The rest take the plunge into a very hot bath. This scolds the tomatoes and loosens the skins. The tomatoes then travel on a moving bed of rubber discs, and this gently pulls the skins away from the tomatoes. A spray of water washes away the skins, which then fall through the rubber disks. This ensures no mess is left after peeling. The now peeled tomatoes travel onto another conveyor, where sprayers give them another rinse. This conveyor controls the flow of peeled tomatoes into the processing room by metering the produce as it moves forward. Ahead, the dicer waits. It has three sets of cross-cutting blades to make light work of the tomatoes. The tomatoes tumble down a chute into the dicer, and are chopped into small cubes. The diced tomatoes pass workers who pick out pieces that aren't perfectly red. They also remove any pieces of core. Leaving the cleaning station, the cans queue up for a filler. Ahead, the diced tomatoes flow into metal pockets. This portions them out, ready for the cans. The pockets rotate forward to meet the cans, now moving in sync below, and the bottoms of the pockets open to release the contents into the cans. They add hot tomato juice and flavorings. Lids advance towards the open cans. They land on top, and a machine crimps the lids to the cans, creating a double seam for a complete seal. Now in airtight cans, the tomatoes head into a hot oven for a quick cooking, which sterilizes them, removing the need to use preservatives. The cans now get their labels. They spin across wheels that apply glue to the sides, and then roll over paper labels, which adhere to the glue-covered cans. Here's the labeling action slowed down.
[4:26]The label contains brand and nutritional information, as well as the exact time of production. This means it can be traced if there's ever a quality issue. It's taken about one hour for these tomatoes to be harvested and canned. All that's needed is a tin opener and a recipe.
