Electronic graders which sort for color and blemishes are being used by some California packers. Cool, white flourescent lamps should be used to provide about 180 footcandles of light at the fruit. Elimination and grade separation chutes should be flush with the grading table to preclude excessive lifting. Fruit flow should be diverted into several streams with three or four graders per stream, the most experienced graders being located at the end of the grading table. Graders tend to remove about 30 fruits per minute, regardless of quality, so the rate of fruit flow or the number of graders should be varied according to the overall quality of a given lot of fruit.
Packinghouses are noisy and fruit grading is monotonous and tiring.
Every effort should be made to provide comfortable grading tables, even if that means using enclosed, air-conditioned rooms to deaden noise levels. Graders make the decisions that determine the fate of each fruit that reaches them. Experienced graders working in comfortable surroundings will generate maximum packout. Most packinghouses use a second line to size and pack lower grade fruit, which may partly explain why most grading tables are located at the sizer. Even with a significant quantity of lower grade fruit, it is rarely economical to second line.