Pamela Anderson Revives Family Tradition With New Pickle Line

Pamela Anderson is embracing a new venture that brings her back to her family roots: pickling. During a recent interview on This Morning, the actress shared that she is launching her own line of pickles, playfully named Pamela’s Pickles. This latest endeavor aligns with her recent plant-based cookbook, I Love You: Recipes From the Heart.

In her conversation with host Alison Hammond, Anderson revealed the deep connection her family has to pickling.

“I’m a pickler! I come from a long line of picklers,” she said. “My great auntie Vie, she won all the pickle and mustard awards on Vancouver Island. It’s a serious thing in my family.” 

Her enthusiasm for the craft runs deep, and she has found her own unique spin on traditional pickling methods. “I put dried roses in my pickles,” Anderson shared, surprising Hammond with the floral addition. “We’re all trying to outdo each other.”

Hammond, inspired by Anderson’s love for pickling, presented her with a homemade batch labeled Pammy’s Pickles. Anderson responded with excitement and confirmed her plans to sell her own. “I am doing something possibly called Pamela’s Pickles,” she revealed. When Hammond jokingly asked if she had just inspired Anderson’s next show, the actress clarified, “It’s not a show but just one episode of something.” She further elaborated on her ambitions, stating, “I’m going to sell pickles! I do pickles in my spare time. You gotta do a bit of everything these days, you know?”

Ditte Isager

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This foray into the food business is a natural extension of Anderson’s cookbook, which reflects her commitment to plant-based cooking and growing much of her own food. The book is filled with family-inspired comfort foods like cabbage rolls, soups, and pickled goods, reimagined through a plant-based lens. Initially intended as a private project for her sons, the collection of recipes evolved into a full-fledged publication, highlighting Anderson’s deep connection to food and sustainability.

Claussen’s pickle production enters the AI era

While Anderson is launching a pickling enterprise from a family tradition, the pickle industry at large is undergoing major technological advancements. Claussen, the top-selling refrigerated pickle brand in the US, is leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to streamline its production. Owned by Kraft Heinz, Claussen processes approximately 60 million cucumbers annually, producing around 42 million jars of pickles. Given the delicate nature of the pickling process, where cucumbers must transition from vine to brine within ten days, AI is now playing a crucial role in optimizing operations.

The company now uses machine learning to analyze images of cucumbers, assessing their quality and size to ensure they meet production standards. This innovation has led to a 12 percent increase in efficiency, improving both quality control and operational flow.

Claussen

Bill Durbin, head of North America logistics and planning at Kraft Heinz, detailed how the company’s digital transformation has enhanced its supply chain. “By leveraging better tools and improving the visibility of exceptions that happen within the network, and then leveraging things like machine learning, we’ve been able to get people out of those manual transactions so that they can then help drive further optimization of the supply chain,” Durbin explained to Food Dive.

The system works by training AI models to recognize acceptable specifications. “We started by bringing in batches of cucumbers, taking pictures of those batches, and the quality team was getting the feedback on which ones were to specification, like validating, sizing them. We were training the machine to do that same task,” Durbin said. Over time, the AI learned to identify variations in size, shape, and defects, reducing the need for manual sorting.

Since implementing AI, Claussen has seen measurable improvements. “On pickles specifically […] since we put this in place, we’ve seen a 12 percent increase in efficiency from that,” Durbin said. “By being able to make this process and identify these things, we’ve been able to make sure that the pickles are getting routed to the right place to give us the best efficiency possible, and also to give that feedback to the suppliers.”