Hi
Processing of cashew nuts
The various processes involved in the processing of
cashew nuts are explained in detail as mentioned below.
Cleaning
All raw nuts carry foreign matter, consisting of sand, stones, dried apple etc. The presence of foreign matter in the roasting operation canbe avoided by cleaning the nuts. The raw nutscan be sieved by handusing a ¾ inch mesh sieve.
Soaking
The next stage is to soak the nuts in water to avoid scorching them during the roasting operation. This can be done by placing the nuts in a 40-45 gallon drum or vat and filling it with water until all the nuts are covered. After being left to stand for about ten minutes, the water should be drained off via a plug near the base of the drum. The nuts should then be left for periods of not less than four hours in order to allow the water left on the surface of the nuts to be absorbed. The process of covering the nuts with water, draining and standing should be repeated with the same nuts about three times until a moisture content of 9 per cent
is reached. Where the production output runs from 2-10 tons of nuts per day, a simple
cleaning and conditioning arrangement can be used. Two people open the sacks of harvested nuts on a stand and clean the raw nuts as they are moved along a flat sieve, to two vats which are used for storage until the soaking process begins.
You can contact the spice board for further details.
Regards
Ashwini
