La Sanson Company è un grossista di prodotti alimentari con sede a Cleveland. Fondata nel 1914, è cresciuta fino ad affermarsi come azienda leader nel settore della distribuzione in tutta l’area del Midwest e nel bacino del medio Atlantico degli Stati Uniti. Oltre ad un impianto ed a una flotta di camion modernissimi ed altamente attrezzati che garantiscono la disponibilità, la freschezza e la sicurezza alimentari dei prodotti, l’azienda dispone di speciali camere pressurizzate che consentono di far raggiungere il perftto stadio di maturazione ai carichi di banane che arrivano dal Sud America.
The Sanson Company, which is located at 3716 Croton Ave. on Cleveland’s east side, is “going bananas” over the changes happening at their facility.
Bananas, green in color, are shipped by boat from many different Central American countries such as Costa Rica, Honduras, Ecuador, and Colombia. The vessels then travel to surrounding ports along the east coast to get unloaded and are, then, transferred to temperature-controlled trucks. These trucks deliver the bananas to The Sanson Company’s 176,000 s.f. refrigerated facility. When the market first opened, the bananas would arrive in stalks; this is not the case today. The bananas are shipped in special boxes that are designed to minimize handling and prevent bruising.
When the bananas arrive they are immediately transferred into pressurized ripening rooms that were manufactured by Thermal Technologies Incorporated. Each room has its very own temperature controlled atmosphere – that way the conditions can be tailored to suit each particular batch of bananas and this is all done by The Sanson Company’s certified banana ripener, Jim Mollette. The specialized rooms allow Jim to control not only the temperature of the banana rooms but also the humidity and ethylene levels. Ethylene is a natural by-product of the bananas and is a key component to the ripening process. During the five to six day ripening process the bananas go though drastic changes in sugar content, color and temperature.
The Sanson Company recently decided to add to its state of the art facility by putting in two more ripening rooms to increase the amount of bananas they can process. These rooms will each hold an entire truckload of bananas; each truckload contains over 38,000 lbs. of bananas. These rooms will be top of the line – Jim will control these just like the others and will have the ability to actually control the ripening process from home. Simply stated, the banana is a climacteric fruit just like a peach or a pear, they ripen after harvested, giving off and accelerated by ethylene gas. “Ethylene concentration is basic to storage life and eating quality of the fruit,” said Mollete.
Aside from health benefits, The Sanson Company offers some great banana tips – in ripening, cooking and just overall fun facts about this tasty treat!
