Conclusions
Most bruising occurs before the fruit reaches the packinghouse.
Packing operations tend to cause more pitting than bruising damage.
Cluster cutter pitting damage can be reduced by slowing the belt speed or increasing the fruit throughput of the cutter. Installation of a variable speed controller would allow the cluster cutter operator to minimize the speed and still obtain good fruit throughput. Saw-type cutters should be operated at high capacities as often as possible.
Shower-type hydrocoolers with high water drop heights cause fruit pitting and bruising. Hydrocoolers should be designed to minimize the distance between the shower pan and the fruit. Installing a fine mesh screen 8 " above the hydrocooler belt eliminates pitting damage.
Immersion coolers do not cause significant amounts of pitting damage.
Diverging roll sizers cause little pitting damage but may cause some bruising damage to small sized fruit.
Cherries falling 10" to a cleated conveyor belt are subject to pitting.
In all unit operations except the cluster cutter, fruit throughput rate is not correlated with pitting damage.