Chilli Processing Plant & Machinery Solutions

Stalks are broken off the dried pods and the loose calyx, dust and field debris are screened away. Stones and mud balls are removed before the pods reach any cutting equipment.

Discoloured, blackened and mould-marked pods are rejected optically, since chilli is bought largely on colour. Sound pods are graded so each variety and size runs as its own batch.

Dried red chilli is the incoming raw material: the pods arrive at the plant already dried after harvest and are not processed green. Moisture in field-dried pods varies from lot to lot, so the sorted pods are given a finishing pass through a dryer and then rested in a bin until the moisture is even through the batch. Moisture is checked before the pods go forward to crushing. Pods that are too moist clog the mill and cake the powder; pods that are over-dried shatter into dust and lose colour.

Conditioned pods are broken into flakes and the seed fraction is separated from the pod wall. Seed can be held back, reduced or added again depending on the pungency and colour the buyer has specified.

Flakes are milled to powder in a closed circuit, with the airborne fraction drawn off and recovered rather than released into the room. Enclosed handling protects operators from capsaicin-laden dust and keeps the powder off the plant floor.

Ground chilli is sifted to the ordered mesh and passed over magnets to catch tramp metal from the mill.

Flakes and powder are weighed into pouches, coded, weight checked and cased for despatch.