Processing Systems for Herbs and Spices
Herbs and spices are delicate, high-value ingredients that require careful processing to preserve their aroma, colour and functional properties. From spice grinding and cryogenic milling to drying, blending and steam sterilisation, Hosokawa provides hygienic powder processing systems for the spice industry. Our solutions support both batch and continuous production with full scalability and recipe flexibility.
The Hosokawa Micron Group also offers advanced technologies for size reduction, cryogenic grinding, air classification and bulk solids handling. From gentle blending of basil leaves to high-speed drying of ginger powder or pasteurisation of paprika, we help manufacturers across the spice industry produce high-quality, clean-label ingredients for use in seasonings, marinades, ready meals and more.
Hosokawa Technologies for Spice Processing
The production of spices—here using chili as an example—is a high-tech process comprising different steps for which high-performance machines and systems are needed. The feed material is derived from the chili pepper plant and varies from source to source.
Steam Sterilisation
The Conical Paddle Dryer offers a flexible, economical and environmentally safe batch process for sterilising spices and herbs. It ensures optimal removal of all pathogenic organisms and germs, with minimum risk of product distortion. After sterilisation, the product moisture content can be brought to the desired level by vacuum drying. Fully automated, recipe-driven system.
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.
Additional Processing Equipment
Within the Hosokawa Micron Group, we can offer additional process components for processing spice and herbs:
- Cleaning: The MZM Multi-Plex zigzag classifier removes both light (e.g. hair, foils) and heavy (e.g. stones, metal) contaminants, ensuring cleaner feed material for further processing.
- Crushing & Cutting: Rotoplex granulators deliver clean, dust-minimised granulation of spices, herbs and teas, ideal for pre-crushing large materials before fine grinding.
- Fine Grinding: The UPZ fine impact mill offers flexible spice grinding with adjustable fineness, while the Contraplex CW II pin mill enables longer runs with sticky or high-oil spices thanks to its counter-rotating design.
- Cryogenic Grinding: Using liquid nitrogen, cryogenic grinding preserves essential oils, boosts throughput, and prevents product smearing—ideal for oily, heat-sensitive spices.
- Puree Grinding: The Angle Disintegrator Unit by Hosokawa Micron Ltd. efficiently reduces both wet and dry spice pastes or sauces to particle sizes as fine as 300 μm.
- Bulk Solids Handling: For conveying, storage, dosing and weighing, Hosokawa Solids offers integrated solutions tailored to the demands of spice and herb processing.
Test Before You Invest
Run trials with your own materials on production-scale equipment at our 2,000 m² Test & Process Development Centre in the Netherlands. Our experienced process specialists work with you to determine the optimal process, equipment or plant setup. We offer lab and production-scale trials, each supported by a detailed technical report covering setup, process parameters and performance insights—helping you choose the best solution with confidence.
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Talk to our experts
Contact us to explore future-ready process technologies for processing spices and herbs — optimised for efficiency and performance.
Sustainable process technologies
Hosokawa Micron B.V. is committed to sustainable and responsible process technology. Our ISO 14001 certification covers key environmental aspects such as air, soil, energy, waste, water, noise and hazardous substances. With an EcoVadis Silver Medal, we rank among the top 3% of EcoVadis-rated companies in the special machinery industry.
