Some people may not know what happens to their food between the field and the grocery store. Washing Grown takes us to Walla Walla River Packing to find out.
Harry Hamada is the manager of Walla Walla River Packing. He planted his first onion in 1975 and has not slowed down.
At the packing facility, the sweet onions come right from the field onto the processing line. According to Hamada, all the fields they pull onions from are within a 15 mile radius of his facility.
Upon arrival the onions are cleaned and dried. Once they make it onto the line, a computer driven conveyor belt processes them and takes pictures. The machine can process 10 onions a second.
While the computer does much of the work, there are still hand-processed sorting tables to catch any mistakes. From there, they are packaged and sent off to the stores.