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Cleaning and grading

Removing dust, stems and stones and sorting spice by size, colour and quality before sale.

A pile: the spice ground to powder, here with a spoon. Ground spice loses its aroma faster than whole.

Also: sorting spices, sieving, sortex, spice grades

After drying, spices are cleaned and graded. Machines winnow stems and dust, sieves sort by size, gravity tables separate stones, and colour sorters reject discoloured pieces. Pepper is graded by berry size and density, in Tellicherry or Malabar grades; cardamom by size and green colour; cinnamon quills by thickness; saffron by colour strength under the ISO 3632 standard, from category I to III. Chillies are graded for colour, pungency and moisture. Buyers write grades into contracts, and graded spice sells at a premium. Steam sterilisation may follow, to cut microbes. Grading in small markets is still done by eye and hand.

See also

ASTA colourDrying spicesSteam sterilisationGrades of pepper

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