Manufacturing Process
1. Harvesting
After ripening, the fruit detaches itself by falling to the ground. At this point the harvest begins, which can take place either manually or with suction machines that also perform a first cleaning.
2. Drying
Drying is necessary to reduce the moisture content of the fruit. Useful for storing hazelnuts for more than a year, it can take place both naturally (with sun exposure) and with mechanical dryier for hazelnuts at 30°/40° C.
3. Shelling
After having collected them from the growers, the hazelnuts are brouth to shelling plants (plate crushers) to break the hazelnut shell and separete the fruit from it.
4. Calibrating
Once shelled, the hazelnuts are selected according to their size and calibrated in a maximum of 9 different sizes, starting from 9 mm to 15 mm.
5. Quality check
A very important step in the production chain is the fruit quality check. The qualitative parametres are evaluated first (including moisture and size) and then biological and chemical tests are carried out before putting the product on the market.
6. Roasting
The product then move on to roasting which takes place in specific rotary ovens, Roasting takes place through rotary tunnel ovens. Depending on the customer’s request, the roasting produces the product based on the aroma, the crunchiness and taste.
7. Processing into a finished product
And then it arrives the moment of processing the product according to the customer’s request. The hazelnut can become grain, by cutting it into small pieces of different calibration, flour,by grinding and sieving the roasted product, pasta, grounded and refined until obtaining a perfectly smooth and flavourful puree, praline pasta, obtained by combining pure pasta and crystalline sugar, or gianduia pasta, obtained by combining hazelnuts, sugar and cocoa.
8. Packaging
The products are packaged according to current food packaging regulations, guaranteeing hygiene and safety.
