Blue Diamond Growers is celebrating the official grand opening of its new 52,000 square-foot facility in Salida, California. The event marks the completion of the facility to add new pasteurization technology and processing lines. The announcement 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.
"The new building design and innovative processing technology we're deploying provides the highest quality almonds to our customers and consumers," stated Mark Jansen, President and CEO for Blue Diamond Growers
The 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 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 to hopefully reduce material handling and trucking costs. Beneath the facility, buried perforated pipe will keep stormwater on-site to recharge the ground water and deliver it directly to the soil.
Continuing its investment in the local community, the company also announced a partnership 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.