Blue Diamond Growers celebrated the official grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony of its new 52,000-s.f., energy-saving manufacturing facility in Salida, California. The event marks the addition new pasteurization technology and processing lines, and follows the cooperative’s recent groundbreaking of its receiving warehouse on the same property in Salida, which is the largest almond receiving station in the world.
“It’s an exciting time for Blue Diamond as we continue to invest in our facilities here in Salida and across the Central Valley to better meet the growing demand for our products worldwide,” says Mark Jansen, president and CEO for Blue Diamond Growers. “The new building design and innovative processing technology we’re deploying provides the highest quality almonds to our customers and consumers.”
The new energy-saving and sustainable manufacturing facility has been engineered to support future expansion plans as needed. Within the facility, Blue Diamond is the first in the almond industry to use Log5 technology across two of its natural pasteurization lines—one for processing whole almonds and the other for dry roasting on an integrated line. A third line uses innovative design with custom features to produce the finest flour texture in the industry.
The new CALGreen facility features several energy-saving attributes including LED lighting, a multi-staged HVAC system and temperature-controlled processes. To meet and exceed today’s stringent food safety standards, the new facility houses separate room enclosures with electronic-controlled entry to better control environmental conditions, along with automated pressurized air and automated controls for all processes and packaging, including monitoring line performance, yields and downtime. Additionally, the integrated processing lines move finished product direct to cold storage and shipping and will greatly reduce material handling and trucking costs. Beneath the facility, buried perforated pipe will keep storm water onsite to recharge the ground water and deliver it directly to the soil.
Continuing its investment in the local community, the company also is partnering with Valley Children’s Hospital for its new Pelandale Specialty Care Center, located approximately one mile from the Blue Diamond Salida facility. A $25,000 partnership will help the hospital as it grows to support the more than 12,000 Stanislaus County pediatric outpatient visits per year.
