Hummus Production Line

Hummus is a creamy, flavorful, and popular dip spread from the Middle East. The hummus is manufactured by soaking and cooking chickpeas in a slurry and then blending them with other ingredients like tahini (sesame paste), olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, and spices.

We offer flexible, automatic and cutting-edge technology to process hummus products, and the whole hummus processing system has the features of high efficiency, energy saving, digitalization, intelligence, and hygiene standards. Digital reports can be used to trace back any production process and fault. The reports integrate text, data, icons, trend lines, fault alarms, etc., to monitor and analyze production activities in all aspects.

Unpasteurized and clean label(no preservatives) commercial hummus usually has 7-15 days in the refrigerator according to acid/water/salt content. But to extend the shelf life, we can pasteurize the hummus before filling or add preservatives during blending of the hummus in mixing tanks, with these methods, the hummus can reach 6 months in the fridge. If manufacturers want to store the hummus at room temperature, then the hummus must sterilized by retort sterilizer after filling into the containers.

The Hummus production line is made of SUS304/SUS316L material, and the whole line is composed of chickpeas washing and soaking machines, chickpea grinding machines, hummus blending tanks, hummus homogenizer and pasteurizer, hummus filling and packaging machines, RO water generating system, and CIP cleaning system.

The capacity of the hummus production line is from 300kg/h-5000kg/h available, and the end products can be filled into jars, plastic cans, bottles, or pouches.

Chickpeas: Chickpeas form the primary base of hummus, providing its creamy texture and mild, nutty flavor. Rich in protein and fiber, in hummus ingredients, approximately 60% are chickpeas. Chickpea preparation: Chickpeas are soaked, cooked until soft then added into blending tanks.

Tahini: It is a paste made from ground sesame seed, it can contribute to the creaminess of the hummus and act as an emulsifier, helping blend the ingredients smoothly. Tahini accounts for 15-20%.

Olive Oil: Olive oil adds richness and enhances the mouthfeel of the hummus, providing a silky texture. Its fruity or peppery flavor complements the other ingredients, the ratio is about 5-10%,

Lemon Juice: Lemon juice provides acidity, balancing the richness of the tahini and chickpeas with a bright, tangy freshness. It also acts as a mild preservative. Roughly 5-7% of the whole hummus products.

Garlic: Garlic gives hummus its savory depth, enhancing the overall flavor profile. The amount used can vary depending on taste preferences.

Salt: It enhances flavor and balances the taste of other ingredients. The ratio is about 1-1.5% or 10-15 g per 1 kg batch.

Some other ingredients like spices and herbs, preservatives, stabilizers, and emulsifiers may also be added to the hummus to increase the shelf life and flavors of the end products.

The chickpea preparation system is mainly involved in chickpea washing, soaking, and cooking systems. Select the ripened and full beans with freshness, then soak the chickpea in hot water(50-60℃) for 2-3 hours, and when soaking, the beans and water ratio will be 1:3. after soaking, the chickpeas will be cooked at 95-98℃ to soften the material in the cooking tank with hot water, then the chickpeas will be transferred to the high-shear mixing tank by pump, in this high-shear mixing tank, the chickpeas will be ground into the mash with chickpea and water ratio is about 2:1.

The hummus preparation system mainly involves mixing chickpea mash, tahini, lemon juice, garlic, olive oil and salt evenly in mixing tanks. For smaller capacities (less than 500kg/h), all the ingredients can be fed into mixing tanks manually according to the recipe; but for the bigger capacity(above 500kg/h), there will be three routes to blending tanks, the first route will be chickpea mash feeding system, the second route is tahini preparation and feeding system, the third route is oil phase preparation and feeding system, and other tiny ingredients can also be dosed into the mixing tanks.

The core machine of the hummus preparation system will be the vacuum blending tank. The vacuum mixer can quickly dissolve powders and liquids in a vacuum environment to achieve the effects of homogenization, emulsification and mixing, and can also remove oxygen from the materials. It is most suitable for mixing liquid/liquid, solid/liquid, and powder/liquid, with a maximum solid content of 80%. It can handle products with extremely high viscosities and meet customers’ highest hygiene requirements. In this vacuum mixing system, the technology uses the optimal powder/liquid or liquid/liquid mixing method. Whether using high-shear mixing or non-high-shear mixing, the product/ingredient can form a homogeneous phase, emulsification and dispersion within a few seconds. Even large amounts of solid and high-viscosity product particles can be easily mixed. All powders and additives can also be sucked into the system under vacuum to maximize the defoaming of the product.

To make hummus smoother and finer tissue, two-stage high-pressure homogenization is preferred to treat the hummus products with a pressure from 25mpa-40mpa before pasteurization.

To extend the shelf life of the hummus, the products can be fed into tube in tube pasteurizer or scraped surface heat exchanger to do the heat treatment before filling. And the pasteurizing process will be 95-98℃ holding for 60S-120S.

This pasteurizer is specially designed for high-viscosity and particulate materials heat treatment such as margarine, ketchup, and mayonnaise. High-viscosity or particulate materials enter the heat exchanger from the bottom through the pipeline and are transported backward from the top after heating. The temperature sensor at the outlet of the scraper heat exchanger and the pneumatic control valve on the steam inlet pipeline is used to dynamically adjust the amount of steam entering the hot scraper. The double heat exchange surface improves the heat exchange efficiency and makes the material heating more uniform. The running parts continuously scrape the heat exchange surface on both sides to prevent material blockage and coking. The risk of lubricating oil contamination is avoided. The system occupies a small area and is easy to maintain.