What Is the Scope of Chilli Processing?

Chilli is a commercially important spice used as a wonder spice for every type of cuisine. However, it is harvested in its raw form, and the stem is cut off. Then, it is crushed and processed to produce the commercially available chilli powder.

Thus, the demand for chilli processing plants is high in food processing industries. The processing plants have vital characteristics for processing chillies, keeping the heat value, colour, and moisture content intact.

These are the chilli processing steps required to process the chillies for commercial use.

Know the Scope of Chilling Processing?

• Chilli Without Stem

In this process, the stems of the chillies are cut manually using knives. The stemless dry chillies are placed inside the drum, where they flow during the processing. The chilli stem cutting machine is efficient in cutting down the stems properly. Under optimum operating conditions, this machine is efficient at around 90 to 95%. Without the stems, chillies are used to make chilli powder, paste, chutney, and flakes.

• Dried Chilli Powder

When the dried chilli powder stems are cut off, they are put inside the grinding machine to get dust. A hammer mill is generally used for grinding dried chillies. The crushed chillies are passed through the hammer mills with centrifugal blowers two or three times. With the help of this machine, dried chilli powder is obtained, and the aroma, colour and quality of the chilli powder are retained properly.

• Chilli Chutney

To make the chilli chutney, the green dry chillies without the stems are soaked in hot water for more than 45 minutes. This increases the softness of the chillies so that they are mixed with jeera, tamarind, garlic, and salt to blend and make a chutney. The chilli chutney is a famous ingredient which is used in side dishes.

• Chilli Seeds and Oil

The chilli seeds can be easily obtained from the dry and clean chillies obtained after cutting off the stems of the chillies. A separate machine with blades and sieves cuts the chilli into pieces and passes them through the vibrating sieves. During this process, the seeds from the chillies are extracted, or they generally fall to the bottom. You can also extract chilli oil using the same process.

Chilli processing is important, especially for the food processing industry, because using unprocessed chillies directly in any cuisine is difficult. Hence processing is required to refine the same and turn it into usable condition.