In the food industry, agar-agar is used as a gelling and binding agent, offering a tasteless alternative to gelatin. It can be used to produce vegetarian or vegan foods such as soups, confectionery, or ice cream. Thanks to its various properties, agar-agar is also popular in the pharmaceutical industry.
A variety of algae such as the brown algae notted kelp (Ascophyllum nodosum) or Laminaria are used to produce different types of agar-agar with varying properties for a wide range of areas of application.
A thorough washing process to remove sand and fine particles with the HEWA
The seaweed is harvested from different ocean regions all over the globe before being processed in several stages to produce agar-agar. One of the main processing stages is washing the seaweed to remove sand, dirt, and fine particles. The HEWA 3800B washing machine is the ideal solution for this task thanks to its optional water management system (WMS) developed especially for sandy products and its lateral fine particle removal drum. In a continuous washing process, the HEWA uses its HELICAL washing system to effectively wash large amounts of up to 2,400 kg of algae, reliably removing sand and other fine particles.
Shredding seaweed with the extremely versatile GS 20 cutting machine
Once it has been washed, the algae is shredded by the GS 20 belt cutting machine, which can process up to 1,500 kg per hour, and then spin-dried in the K650 drying system. It can then be crushed, boiled, and dried in further processing stages to produce agar-agar.
A multitude of KRONEN machines are used by food processing companies worldwide, especially for processing fruit, vegetables, and salad leaves but also for the production of innovative plant-based raw materials made from, for example, seaweed – or even marine organisms rich in protein like at the company Pronofa.
