How Chickpeas Are Processed: Cleaning, Grading & Sortex Color Sorting

When chickpeas arrive at a processing facility straight from the farm, they carry a mix of impurities: soil clods, small stones, weed seeds, undersized grains, broken beans, discoloured kernels and dust. Delivering this raw grain to an international buyer would result in rejection — or heavy price deductions.

Systematic post-harvest processing removes these impurities and produces a uniform, market-ready lot that meets buyer specifications. Here is how each stage works.

1. Pre-Cleaning

Raw chickpeas first pass through a scalper or rotary drum screen to remove large debris — straw, cobs, oversized stones and clumps. An aspirator draws off dust and chaff using airflow. This first pass can remove 3–5% of the weight as waste material.

2. Destoning

A destoner uses a combination of vibration and air to separate stones and heavy clods from grain. Stones are denser than chickpeas, so they slide uphill on the vibrating deck while chickpeas move downhill. This is a critical step for food safety — stones can damage processing equipment downstream and injure end consumers.

3. Sizing / Grading

Chickpeas pass through a set of screens (sieves) with precisely sized holes. For kabuli chickpeas, this separates the three commercial grades: large count (44–46 per 100g), medium count (58–60 per 100g) and small count (82–85 per 100g). Each grade is collected separately and sold at different price points — large-count kabuli commands the highest premium.

• Grade 44/46 — large kabuli, premium price, European hummus market
• Grade 58/60 — medium kabuli, volume trade, Middle East & USA
• Grade 82/85 — smaller kabuli, value product, Asia & Africa
• Unders — below grade, sold locally as feed or re-processed

4. Sortex Color Sorting

This is the final and most technically advanced step. A Sortex (or similar optical sorter) uses high-speed cameras and air jets to inspect each chickpea in free-fall. It detects and ejects discoloured grains, black-spotted beans, fungal-damaged seeds and foreign material — with precision measured in fractions of a second.

Sortex-cleaned chickpeas achieve 99%+ purity and a visually uniform appearance that is required by premium retail buyers, canned food processors and EU importers. Non-sortex lots may still meet feed specifications but are discounted for food-grade contracts.

5. Weighing, Bagging & Documentation

Processed chickpeas are weighed and bagged — typically in 25 kg or 50 kg PP woven bags, or 1 MT big bags. Each batch is labelled with lot number, variety, grade, net weight and origin. Documentation — lab analysis report, moisture certificate, phytosanitary certificate, certificate of origin — is prepared alongside.

At Laxmi Agro Processors, every lot is processed in our own facility in Chopda, Jalgaon. We control each step of the process — from intake to container stuffing — which means consistent quality across shipments.