Spice,Herb&Vegetable
Grinding spices is one of the most challenging comminution tasks of all. Not only does the structure of spices vary widely, but also their grindability. Some spices - for example turmeric - can differ depending on how they are grown and when they are harvested.
Hosokawa delivers complete systems for any spice and dried vegetable for every fineness requirement and final application, whether it is for sauces, soups, curd cheese, cheese, sausage, spice blends or bakery products. Depending on the specification, we offer systems for the following process steps: cleaning, crushing, cutting, fine grinding, cryogenic grinding with CO2, LN2, sieving, sorting, mixing and packing, etc., tailored to the individual products or in the form of a multi-processing system.
As a function of the products - the properties of which such as hardness, size, oil content, shearing resistance and toughness vary widely - we offer different systems tailored to the respective requirements for spices and dried vegetables:
- Cutting with the Rotoplex Ro
- Fine grinding with the Ultraplex UPZ
- Fine grinding with the Contraplex CW
- Cryogenic grinding with the UPZ, CW or LX
Cutting with the Rotoplex Ro
Spices and herbs, etc. are finely cut with a minimum of dust using the Rotoplex granulator. Typical applications are ginger, chestnuts, garlic, and oregano, both fresh and dried plants.
Fine grinding with the Ultraplex UPZ mills
These mills are equipped with interchangeable grinding elements, thus giving the user a maximum degree of flexibility, something that, besides the actual grinding performance, is becoming more and more important these days. The UPZ is widely used in the international spice industry as a universal all-round mill for producing granular to ultrafine end products. It is suitable for just about every type of spice, except for those with an extremely high oil content.
Ultraplex fine impact mills UPZ
The material properties, and especially the wear behavior, dictate selection of the mill. UPZ mills are the mill of choice for root spices, seeds, fruit skins and husks with high ash content and extremely hard kernels such as rose hips.
Fine grinding with the Contraplex CW
Thanks to their universality, especially in the case of extremely greasy and heat-sensitive spices for which other systems are totally unsuitable, Contraplex mills are considered the classic spice mills. Even with spices that are extremely critical in terms of grinding, Contraplex mills are perfect for continuous operation over prolonged periods.
Mixing / Blending
When selecting mixing equipment, it is important to match the amount of shear introduced during the mixing operation to the properties of your spice powder – such as fragility, cohesiveness and the fat/oil/fibre content. This will enable you to achieve optimal homogeneity without damaging the product. We generally recommend one of the following two batch mixers for spices:
Nauta conical screw mixer: Low-shear mixing operation offering a high mixing accuracy for a variety of spices, even the most delicate ones;
Vitomix ribbon screw mixer: Twin-screw, low-to-medium shear offers a fast mixing operation in which the mixing intensity can be adjusted to different types of spices. The Vitomix is often used for the homogeneous introduction of liquid oils/flavours into spice mixtures.
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