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Leaves must have an acceptance specification. At this point, the leaves get inspected
one by one as they enter the process. Leaves that do not meet specs are rejected here.
Layout for this station is usually a conveyor that feeds leaves coming from the rinse tank
into the table. It has a conveyor to carry waste out and either a series of tables or
conveyors to carry the leaves to the next processing step.
It is important at this step to reject any leaves with evident injuries, cuts, or
lesions in order to avoid contamination of the product downstream. Tips, tails, and
spines are usually cut off the leaves by hand at this stage, so again the layout is such
that would accommodate enough people to perform these duties. Typically 6 to 8 people
can process 1000 Kg of leaves through this step.
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