Banana processing

Washing and peeling

Bananas are received in the Bertuzzi washer InoxAll where, by immersion in the water and thanks to a Jet System, the surface of the fruits is washed. Fruits are then rinsed by a shower of fresh water on the elevator that takes the fruits to the subsequent sorting and peeling operations.

With the same elevator the bananas are fed to a dedicated belt conveyor where bananas are manually peeled.

Bananas are received at the plant
Bananas are fed to the processing line and washed in the InoxAll washer
A tip cutting and peeling line for banana and mango

Mashing and puree refining

Peeled bananas are conveyed to the mono screw pump. Here nitrogen is injected as blanket gas to prevent oxidation. Mashed bananas are fed to the pre-heating scraped surface exchanger for the thermal treatment to increase the action of the following operation of pulping and refining carried out by the Bertuzzi Creamers. Treated refined banana can be acidified in continuous to reduce its pH.

scraped surface heat exchanger
Two JumboCreamer's
Deaerator with aromatic condense recovery
Dispersor High Pressure Homogenizer

Sterilization and aseptic filling

Banana puree, natural or acidified, can be sterilizied or pasteurized depending by the specific request of the application. Acidified banana puree can be sterilized by a tube-in-tube heat exchanger while natural puree require a sterilizer with scrape Surface heat exchanger technology.

Once sterilized the product is filled in aseptic bag in drums or in box thanks to Bertuzzi Aseptic Fillers.

Scraped surfaces Enzymatic Deactivator installed on a Banana Plant in Kenya
Aseptic filler Aseptica Gemina during precommissioning
Aseptic filler Aseptica Prima during operation
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Scraped surface sterilizer group (version with vertical heater)

Cleaning of the plant

All Bertuzzi lines are designed according to the international food grade requirements and to be fully cleanable by exploiting integrated cleaning procedures and systems or centralized and fully automatic CIP system. The Bertuzzi CipMatic is specifically designed to guarantee a perfect and efficent CIP of the fruit processing plants.

a CipMatic 1.500/3 installed on a fresh fruit processing line
The CipMatic 3.000/3 during the operation test in Bertuzzi site