Focusing In: Fresh To Frozen Peas

The process of frozen foods neither starts nor ends with the use of quick-freezing technology in air-blaster freezers. All vegetables, fruits, and meats must be properly prepared before entering the freezer, and the frozen product is carefully analyzed by quality control workers afterwards. For example, frozen peas have a multi-step process that only lasts a few hours, but which transforms the freshly picked peas into the variety you buy in your grocery store's freezer. This process begins at the farmland. Fresh peas that are frozen are actually cultivated for that specific purpose. Producers require the farmed peas to have sturdy shells and a hard interior to minimize the damage done by freezing. When these special varieties have ripened, they are picked by hand or automatically by a machine. Then a specialized machine sorts through the peas and removes them from their shells. The peas are cooled with ice water and then packed in ice, ready to be transported to the freezing plant.

Once the chilled peas reach the plant, they are sprayed down with water to remove the dust and dirt. Then they pass through a vat of boiling water where they are blanched for a couple of minutes. Through blanching, the enzymes, like those in the fish, are killed to prevent further spoilage while retaining taste. Afterwards the peas are cooled down from the boiling water and transferred to a gravity sorter, where they are immersed in brine to be separated by texture. The tender peas float to the top while the starchy ones sink to the bottom.When the tender peas have been picked out, they are rinsed again to remove the salt remnants. Once clean, they are sorted again by human workers, who inspect the peas as they pass through on belts and pick out the discolored or irregularly shaped peas, rocks, and debris from the pile. At the very end of this process, only the top quality peas remain, ready to be frozen.

Peas are frozen using the same quick-freezing process found in the air-blaster freezers. The clean peas are placed in the freezers and are moved through the room so that in just 15 minutes, the peas are frozen and ready to be packaged. The packaging stage has now become fully automated. The frozen peas travel on a belt where mechanical equipment packages them and then stacks them in a case. The cases are arranged in pallets to be stored in a warehouse cooled between 0 to -20° F. Finally, when the peas are ready to be distributed to grocery stores, they are carried in trucks or rail cars cooled to 0° F or below.