Customer complaints for excess water in onions

Hi everyone, we are a fresh cut produce facility, and recently being getting lots of customer complaints regarding excess water in the package. Does anyone else have similar issue or give some advice how can solve this. The diced onions goes through a flume and then a drying belt. but we still end up having excess water int he product. 

where are the onions grown, how are they transported (refrigerated or amibent), what type of onions are they, when were they picked, how were they stored before being transported to your facility??

Maybe they need longer drying times- carry out a process validation to see how much water you end up with in the pack and decide on a specification.

I have worked with diced onion before and we had spinning centrifugal basket to quickly dry the onions after being washed- this worked well.

Also, you tend to see excess water when the onions are at the end of shelf life- as the cell walls start to break down liquid from the onions is released. You might want to do a shelf life trial- take samples of your product for each day of shelf life from one batch and check one on each day to measure the amount of liquid.

My company is a fresh cut produce processor and after the flume system, we use centrifugal drying to expel excess moisture. It is about a 4 minute spin, but it does the job and have no complaints for extra moisture. 

I agree with Jay2023 - you may need longer drying time. Also, how many days past the delivery/production date are they complaining about moisture? What are you packaging the onions in? It is very possible that it is breaking down towards the end of the shelf life. 

How much moisture content you found during regular QC Check?

We use a spray wash or dip depending on volume but always spin them dry. About 2-3 minute process for us but if we shorten it we definetly get excess water. Also seconding the quality of the raw product and how it's been stored makes a huge difference. Though depending on the season dictates how well you can control that as well. 

veruca