Remaining faithful by choice to traditional manufacturing and natural fermentation techniques, the André Laurent Company has nevertheless adopted the latest techniques to preserve the quality of its finished product.

 From cabbage seeds to sauerkraut :

Tobegin, we carefully selects our seeds for the cabbages we grow ourselves and for those grown by our grower partners and producers. The cabbages are from the Brassica Oleracea family, a white firm head cabbage. Cabbage growing requires rigorous soil preparation. The seeds are sown in greenhouses in the spring and the cabbages are planted out in April by mechanical means:    22,500 plants are grown per hectare. The cabbages are harvested between August and the end of November, mechanically, which means varieties are needed that mature evenly. The machine uproots the cabbage, cuts off the base and outer leaves. The cabbages are then taken straight to the processing plant.

On their arrival in the factory, the cabbages are laid individually on a tray by operators to be cleaned by a machine. Then, still using conveyor belts, the cabbage goes into a drum with blades that strip off the leaves.

After a manual inspection, the cabbage is shredded. The strips are carried along a moving belt in front of an electronic salting machine that

adds salt according to weight. The salted cabbage falls into vats with a volume of between 15 and 120 tons, where it is crushed. The vat is then sealed with a layer of water. The cabbage undergoes anaerobic fermentation that lasts between 15 days and 2 months depending on the external temperature. Sauerkraut is in fact merely cabbage taht has been transformed by natural fermentation.

 

From raw sauerkraut to cooked sauerkraut :

Pasteurised cooked sauerkraut :
When it leaves the fermentation vat, the sauerkraut is cooked using a traditional method, incorporating all of the ingredients that make up the final product. the sauerkraut is then packed into plastic bulk.

Canned sauerkraut :
The sauerkraut is put into cans along with the remaining ingredients. The cans, made in our own manufacturing and sterilising plant, are sealed then sterilised in an autoclave.

Vacuum-packed sauerkraut :
After cooking, the sauerkraut is packed in different sized bags so that it can be kept under a vacuum.