Ginger Powder Production Tips

Ginger Powder Production Tips in Nigeria

Ginger Powder Production Tips in Nigeria | Ginger is well known in many human communities around the world. It is the underground rhizome of a perennial tropical crop called Ginger plant (Zingiberofficinale).

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Originally, the plant is a native of South Eastern Asia but over centuries has been introduced to various parts of the world like the Caribbean, the Americas and Africa. Presently, the top growers of the crop includes Jamaica, Indonesia, Fiji etc

A mature ginger rhizome is fibrous and has a striated texture. The outer skin of the rhizome is brownish in colour while the inner flesh depending on the variety may be red, yellow or white.

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Ginger Powder Production Tips

Nigeria is the third largest exporter of ginger in the world after China and India. In the Nigerian market ginger is well known and on high demand even though it is quite expensive.

Most of the dried ginger that are available for international trade are simply sun dried over a few days, but artificial drying is also used in areas lacking a defined dry season to coincide with the harvest.

Ginger Powder Production Tips

The rhizomeis dried to between 10 and 12 per cent moisture content. Dried ginger is usually presented in a split or sliced form. Splitting is said to be preferred to slicing, as slicing loses more flavour, but the sliced are easier to grind and this is the predominant form of dried ginger currently in the market.

In Nigeria, harvesting of ginger starts from October and normally continues until April/May. This largely depends on the market situation as ginger can be left on the ground (not harvested) for two years.

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Ginger Powder Production Tips

Ginger is produced in six states of the Federation namely, Kaduna, Nasarawa, Benue, Niger and Gombe with Kaduna as the major producer. Nigeria’s production in 2005 was estimated at 110,000 metric tonnes (FAO). In the market, ginger is available in various forms; fresh ginger rhizome, powder ginger and dry ginger rhizome. Out of this, 10% is locally consumed as fresh ginger while 90% is dried primarily for the export markets.

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Ginger Powder Production Tips

Ginger can be processed into a wide variety of products. Many products can be manufactured from ginger like dehydrated ginger, ginger candy, ginger powder, ginger oil and oleoresins and so on. Ginger is an important commercial crop with versatile applications. As condiment, ginger is used for flavoring many food products like tomato sauce or ketchup, salad dressings, meat sausages, gravies, pickles, curry dishes and so on.

Ginger Powder Production Tips

It is also used in many medicines as it helps digestion and absorption of food and has antiseptic properties. Ginger based products have wide range of applications in many industries like food processing, pharmaceutical, soft drinks, meat canning, confectionery, tobacco processing, soap making and so on. The demand for the processed products is increasing day by day due to its convenience to handle and use. There are good export prospects as well.

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Ginger Powder Production Tips

Ginger Processing Technologies 

Nigerian ginger, particularly the type A farmed in Kaduna, is the best and in demand throughout the world. In Nigeria, ginger is found in almost all the local markets across the country. Ginger is used as flavoring for recipes such as ginger bread, ginger biscuits, ginger sweets, and ginger tea, ginger ale and ginger beer. It is used as a spice in many local cuisine, and also acts a constituent of herbal medicines. However, despite its many uses in food and beverage, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries, little processing is done locally. Meanwhile the mechanism to package the product to meet international standard is lacking. Common processes are as follows:
1. Ginger Washing
Fresh rhizomes should be washed, and cleaned from debris, shoots and roots. After washing, the ginger is lightly dried in the sun before being marketed in this form.
Tips: Ginger spray washing machine is suggested which adopts high-pressure water flow for washing ginger, having high impurities reduction efficiency.

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Ginger Powder Production Tips

2. Ginger Peeling
Fresh ginger in young form has a pale, thin skin that does not require peeling. Fresh mature ginger is tough, which requires peeling to get to the fibrous flesh. Fresh ginger is either chopped or grated before use.
Dried gingers are sold with the skin left on or peeled off, while peeling or scraping can reduce drying time.
Tips: To peel gingers efficiently, brush type ginger washing and peeling machine is suggested, which can clean independently or clean and peel at the same time.

Ginger Powder Production Tips

3. Ginger Splitting
Nigerian ginger is mostly cultivated by peasant farmers and processed by them as whole dry or split dry ginger. Splitting facilitates the drying process. Farmers traditionally use manual method of splitting ginger using a knife, which is slow and labor-intensive, not suitable for large-scale production. Splitting machine is scarce and slicing machine is not attractive.
Tips: Ginger garlic slicing machine can slice ginger with a capacity of 200 kg/h or 500 kg/h, and the machine is cost-effective. Ginger Bleaching
The peeled/scraped rhizomes may be bleached to improve appearance. Fresh ginger is dipped in a slurry of slaked lime followed by sun drying. When the water dries off, the rhizomes are again dipped in the slurry. This process is repeated until the rhizomes are uniformly white in color. Dry ginger can also be bleached this way. Liming can also protect ginger against pests during storage and shipping.

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Ginger Powder Production Tips

4. Ginger Drying
Drying should be done to 8-10% moisture, and should not exceed 12%. In most growing areas, the traditional method of drying ginger by sun drying is used. The peeled split/sliced ginger are placed on clean bamboo mats or on a concrete floor and sun-dry for 7 to 14 days. In places where unfavorable seasonal conditions prevail, modern methods using mechanical or solar dryers are also used.
Tips: Hot air circulation drying oven adopts circulated hot air to dry the ginger, having high efficiency. Equipped with adjustable air divider plate inside the oven, materials can be dried evenly. Different capacities are offered for production of different scales. Ginger Powder Crushing
Dried ginger can be grinded to produce powder ginger with 50 to 60 mesh size. Pulverization is generally a limiting unit operation in ginger processing.
Tips: Ginger powder crushing machine gets ginger crushed by the impact & grind function of the relative motion between active and fixed fluted discs, and impact between the materials. Easy operation, adjustable fineness.
5. Ginger Oil and Oleoresin
Ginger oil is obtained by steam distillation of the ground dry ginger, while ginger oleoresin is obtained from the powder by solvent extraction.

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Ginger Powder Production Tips

6. Ginger Packing
Bulk ginger rhizomes may be packed in jute sacks, wooden boxes or lined corrugated cardboard boxes for shipping. Dried ginger slices or powder are packaged in kraft multi-wall laminated bags.
Tips: Vacuum packing machine can pack fresh ginger, whole dry ginger and ginger splits. Various machines are available for packing ginger powder, one of them is automatic powder packing machine.

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