Process Systems for Spices & Herbs

Preserving the spice characteristics for optimal product quality

Almost every kind of powder-based savoury food product or ingredient – from packet soups to sauce mixes and even bakery mixtures – contains one or more spices to add flavour, aroma and/or colour. Despite being used in relatively small quantities, those spices play a big role in the ultimate quality of the end product – not only in terms of taste, smell and appearance, but also in relation to food safety.

Delicate properties

The properties of most spices are very delicate and are therefore susceptible to the impact of various processing steps. This presents manufacturers of spices and spice mixes with a considerable challenge: how to achieve the desired level of product quality as efficiently and safely as possible.

How can you balance product quality with efficiency and safety?

The optimum way to balance product quality with efficiency and safety depends very much on your own specific situation, including which types of spices are being used in which process steps in order to manufacture which products, as outlined below.

Crushing, cutting and fine milling

Once the spices have been harvested and dried, they are usually crushed, cut and finely milled. This operation has a significant impact on the final product quality. Hosokawa offers various grinding technologies for this part of the process, depending on particle size and product characteristics, to ensure that the unique characteristics of your spices are preserved.

Crushing and cutting

The first step when processing spices is often a crushing/cutting operation in which the spices are gently cut to a specific coarse particle size. Hosokawa Alpine supplies a cutting mill for use with spices:

• Rotoplex Ro: For cutting spices to a particle size < 3mm.

For some spices, it can be beneficial to opt for cool milling (at +5⁰C to +20⁰C) or cryogenic milling (at -80⁰C to -10⁰C) instead of ambient milling. Cryogenic milling enables higher powder fineness, longer product shelf life and reduced evaporation of essential oils, thus better preserving the flavour properties. In the case of white pepper, for example, cryogenic milling retains 94.5% of the essential oil content, compared to just 57.8% retained when it is finely milled at ambient temperature.

All spices are cleaned after being harvested and dried, but they subsequently need to be sterilized to kill off any harmful bacteria or mould before they can be further processed. Hosokawa Micron's batch steam sterilizer (HSSP) performs a very effective yet brief and gentle heat treatment followed by rapid cooling:

• Minimizes the negative effect of the temperature on the spice properties such as flavour and colour;
• Based on Hosokawa's Conical Paddle Dryer (CPD) technology;
• Three-in-one steam sterilizer, mixer and vacuum dryer for extra process efficiency;
• Batch system: maximum flexibility in terms of time & temperature parameters and batch sizes.

Within the Hosokawa Group, we have a strong focus on hygiene by design to help our customers uphold the highest possible standards of food safety while also benefiting from efficiency gains.

• Machines are designed for optimum cleanability;
• Often available with a fully automated cleaning in place (CIP) system;
• Avoid cross-contamination between different batches of spices;
• Comply with food safety regulations;
• Optimize production efficiency by reducing downtime;
• Operator and system safety (CE/ATEX compliance).

Application-specific advice

There is such a diverse range of spices, each with their own characteristics, that selecting the best technology for your application is a complex process of interacting criteria. Our experts within the Hosokawa Group are always on hand to support you based on your specific situation. They are happy to discuss your challenges and advise you on a high-quality, food-grade total spice-processing solution that is optimally aligned with your needs.