At present manufacturers of ready-made curry paste are facing the problem of cleaning the ingredients for the curry. The raw ingredients are local agricultural products which are readily available in the local markets. All these products are mixed with soil, chemicals, fungus etc. which need to be removed before they can be used in the manufacturing process. The current cleaning process is labour intensive and the quality of the products is varied with no fixed standard. At present there are cleaning machines for these ingredients, but the machines are imported from abroad which makes the costs high and the product expensive.

           The Thailand Institute of Scientific and Technological Research (TISTR), with technical support from the German Technical Cooporation (GTZ) and Nittaya Curry Thai Product Co. Ltd., a major chilli paste producer and exporter, has designed and developed a high technology vegetable washing machine. The purpose of this project was to develop the machine to enable the food industry in Thailand to compete with others abroad. This is a new innovation in response to the needs of the food producers in Thailand .

           This washing machine has the capacity to process 500-900 kilograms per hour. It is made of stainless steel which is available in Thailand . It uses a 2 horsepower motor to rotate the pipe and two pumps of 1.5 and 1 horsepower to spray the water.

How machine works.

           The machine uses a continuous cleaning process with rotary drum and a water spraying head. The head can be taken apart and cleaned easily . Inside the drum there is a nylon brush for cleaning all the particles that come with the vegetables. The water used in the cleaning process is recycled, which makes the machine more economical. The time taken for the cleaning process is only 2-3 minutes. The vegetables will be cleaned to a high standard which will speed up the next step of the production.

           This vegetable washing machine has been designed for use with various kinds of raw materials used for food production, for example ginger, garlic, onion, lemongrass, including head type vegetables like carrot and potato and tapioca. In addition the machine is one third to one fifth of the cost of imported ones. This machine is suitable for the SMEs operator.