Romaine lettuce comes in many forms. There is baby romaine lettuce, regular romaine lettuce (what you are used to seeing in the grocery store) and romaine hearts. The following is an example of a baby romaine lettuce harvesting and packing operation at Babé Farms in Santa Maria, California.
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What’s the Difference Between Baby Romaine and Romaine Lettuce?
Baby romaine lettuce and regular romaine lettuce grow from the same plant (cultivar), but they are just grown differently. Baby romaine is planted closer together and is harvested before it reaches a certain size, resulting in smaller heads of romaine. This product is commonly used in specialty dishes, along with other baby head lettuces.
Baby Romaine Lettuce Harvest & Packing
Baby romaine lettuce is harvested just the same as romaine lettuce is harvested, which is a similar process to any type of head lettuce.
In medium to large-sized produce operations, it is very common for harvesting rigs (machines that move along with the harvesting crew in the field) to be used while harvesting lettuce. In this case, the harvesters walk along and harvest the baby romaine heads, while keeping up with the harvesting rig and the packers work to pack the harvested product from the harvesting rig.
Here is a breakdown of the different steps that take place during the harvesting and packing process:
- Box Formation – Boxes are formed on the harvesting rig as it moves along in the field. The workers form the boxes, place a bag inside, and then include a liner as an insert to capture moisture. As you can see, there are holes in the bag, to allow better control of the environment inside the bag.
- Harvest – Baby romaine lettuce is harvested using a knife, removing the heads near the soil line.
- Packing Table – The harvested heads are placed onto the packing table on the harvesting rig.
- Wash Step – They are then spritzed with sanitized water and packed into boxes. This water contains some form of sanitizer in the water, and the heads of lettuce are placed directly into the boxes wet.
- Palletize – These boxes, which are in their final packaging, are then sent over on a conveyor line to an adjacent trailer where they are packed into pallets. Depending on who the final customer is, the packaging will look differently.
- Cooling – Once the adjacent trailer is full of pallets, the trailer is taken to the cooler until further transport. The quicker the lettuce gets to a cooler, and stays cool until it is purchased, the longer the shelf-life it will have.
Romaine Lettuce Harvest & Packing Videos
This is what the full baby romaine harvest and packing process looks like:
You can also see an updated version of their baby romaine lettuce harvesting and packing operation in the following video:
Food Safety Considerations
For a romaine harvesting and packing operation, some of the main food safety concerns are:
- Glove policy – Since gloves are required, there needs to be a glove policy enforced. This means that the gloves are controlled by the company, and that they are either disposable or able to be washed, and are changed out appropriately. If the gloves are washed, the company needs to control the cleaning of the gloves.
- Cleaning and Sanitation of the harvesting knives – Cleaning and sanitizing of the knives needs to occur on a regular and frequent basis. In addition to this being on a schedule and controlled by the company, there also needs to be a knife dip to store the knives in while the workers are on break.
- Cleaning and Sanitation of the conveyor line – Every piece of harvested product touches the conveyor line between being harvested and packed, so it needs to be cleaned and sanitized to prevent any potential cross-contamination issues to the product.
- Testing of the wash water – Since water is being used to spray the harvested heads of romaine after they are packed into boxes, it needs to be potable and tested water. The water is single-pass water and not reused, but it needs to be tested to ensure it meets the requirements to be used on the harvested product.
There are many more items to be taken into consideration, but this is just a brief list to get you thinking about it! Also, romaine lettuce is one of the products that is included in the Leafy Green Marketing Agreement (LGMA), where there are specific food safety rules included to help regulate the safety of leafy greens in the market.
Postharvest Considerations
The most important postharvest factor is to quickly cool the lettuce near 0°C/32°F and to maintain that temperature throughout the cold chain. This is similar for all leafy greens. Romaine lettuce also needs to be kept away from high ethylene-producing commodities, as ethylene will cause discoloration to the product.
Frequently Asked Questions
How to eat baby romaine lettuce?
Lettuce is no longer just being used for salads! People are now using lettuce leaves instead of tortillas on wraps, as the shell to a taco and in stir fries. I have even started to see a lot of marketing suggest cutting lettuce heads in half and grilling them on the barbeque! With baby romaine lettuce leaves, you can achieve all of these alternative recipes on a smaller scale. You can click here to read all about how to select, store and prepare romaine lettuce.
What is the point of spraying the harvested heads of lettuce with water?
Just like in the grocery stores with the misters, water is spritzed onto the lettuce to maintain the moisture in the lettuce to keep it from wilting in transport.
Featured Grower Information
I would like to thank Babé Farms for the tour and for allowing the footage to be shared. Babé Farms is located in Santa Maria, California, and specializes in growing “baby” vegetables. You can also see more of their products and growing operations, featured here: radishes, machine harvesting lettuce, creating salad mix, carrots, Blonde Frisée, and kale.
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Some other posts that may be of interest:
Certai my some of the sanitizing agent in the water is absorbed into the lettuce. Why is this not disclosed on the ingredient label of final consumer package?