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Plantain chips and flour
Fried plantain chips, plantain flour, banana flour
Plantain chips and flour line by GEM Foodtech, Kolkata, India — capacity 500 kg to 8 tonnes of plantain per hour, final yield 24% of raw intake, delivered as a turnkey plant with installation and commissioning worldwide.
The commercial reality
Plantain is a West African and Latin American volume business with a stubborn bottleneck: peeling. Get the peeling line right and everything downstream is standard chips or flour processing. Get it wrong and labour cost eats the margin.
Process flow diagram
Generated for the standard configuration. Yours is redrawn to your product mix, capacity and site.
Process chart
Every stage with the equipment that performs it, the operating parameter and the control point that decides quality.
| # | Stage | Equipment | Parameter | Control point |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Reception and ripeness sorting | Inspection and sorting conveyor | Green for flour, half-ripe for chips | Ripeness stage fixed by product |
| 02 | Washing | Fruit and vegetable washer | Brush washer | Latex and soil removed |
| 03 | Peeling | Peeler, abrasive or steam | Mechanical assisted or manual station | Peel loss controlled at 30–35% |
| 04 | Slicing | Slicer, dicer and shredder | 1.5–2.0 mm chips or 5 mm for flour | Cut geometry set |
| 05 | Blanching or anti-browning dip | Blancher and cooler | Steam blanch or citric dip | Enzymatic browning stopped |
| 06 | Frying or drying | Continuous fryer and de-oiler | Fryer 165–175 °C, or belt dryer 60–70 °C for flour | Moisture and colour |
| 07 | De-oiling or milling | Grinder and pulveriser | De-oiler for chips, hammer mill for flour | Oil content or mesh |
| 08 | Packing | Filling, sealing and packing line | N₂ flush for chips, moisture barrier for flour | Shelf life |
Mass balance
Basis of 1,000 kg of raw material. Change the tonnage below and the whole table rescales.
| Stage | Output, kg/h | Yield | Loss, kg/h | Where the loss goes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plantain received | 1,000 | 100% | 0 | — |
| After washing and sorting | 970 | 97% | 30 | Rejects to feed |
| After peeling | 650 | 65% | 320 | Peel to feed or biogas |
| Chips after frying | 320 | 32% | 330 | Water evaporated, oil absorbed |
| Flour after drying and milling | 240 | 24% | 80 | Water evaporated |
By-products: Peel dried for animal feed; a real revenue line in high-volume plants rather than a disposal cost.
Equipment schedule
Core machines for this line. Conveying, tanks, CIP and utilities are added to suit the layout.
| Equipment | Capacity range | Function |
|---|---|---|
| Inspection and sorting conveyor | Preparation | Manual or optical removal of unripe, damaged and foreign material. |
| Fruit and vegetable washer | Preparation | Removes field soil, latex and surface load with recirculated, filtered water. |
| Peeler, abrasive or steam | Preparation | Abrasive carborundum drum or batch steam peeler with flash vessel. |
| Slicer, dicer and shredder | Preparation | Uniform slices, dices, strips or kibble — cut geometry sets drying time. |
| Blancher and cooler | Thermal | Inactivates enzymes, sets colour, then cools to arrest cooking. |
| Continuous fryer and de-oiler | Thermal | Oil-temperature-profiled frying with centrifugal or vibratory de-oiling. |
| Grinder and pulveriser | Size reduction | Hammer, pin or cryogenic milling to a controlled mesh. |
| Filling, sealing and packing line | Packing | Weighing, filling, sealing, metal detection and case packing. |
Questions we get on this line
Chips or flour from the same line?
Yes, with a shared front end. The split is after slicing: fryer for chips, belt dryer and mill for flour.
What drives chip quality?
Slice thickness uniformity and oil management. Both are equipment questions, not operator questions.
What capacity range does the plantain line cover?
Standard GEM Foodtech builds cover 500 kg to 8 tonnes of plantain per hour. Larger duties are engineered to order — the right size is set by the raw material supply through the season, not the nameplate figure.
Is this supplied as a complete turnkey plant?
Yes. The Plantain chips and flour line is delivered end to end — feasibility, pilot trial on your own material, engineering, manufacture in Kolkata, installation, commissioning and operator training — or as individual machines to fit an existing plant.
Want this line costed for your tonnage?
Send the raw material specification and the capacity you are targeting. You get a flow diagram, an equipment schedule and a budget number.