I. Garlic Powder Benefits

Garlic powder is used in dish seasoning or medical preparation in the global. Powdered garlic contains protein, fiber, vitamin B-6 and essential minerals like iron which has been proven that can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, enhance immunity and cleanse gastrointestinal toxins, etc. What’s more, the powdered one has fewer calories than the fresh one which is healthier for the human body. Generally speaking, garlic is largely cultivated in China, India, Korean, Egypt, and Russia, etc. About two million MT garlic are harvested annually in worldwide, and most garlic will be processed into the powder for it is a more hygienic and light form to use.
In culinary ways, people like adding it to pickles, ketchup, salad dressings, bread, pizza, pasta, soup and stew as a flavoring. In medical fields, the garlic can be extracted for increasing appetite, resisting hypertension & high cholesterol, preventing infectious diseases such as fever, influenza, and cholera. All in all, garlic powder’s wide uses have promoted garlic production and its processing industry, in turn, the garlic powder processing industry can meet human’s different garlic product needs.

II. Garlic Powder Processing Techniques

The fresh garlic cost often changes due to many factors. Therefore, especially in the off-season, fresh garlic is usually processed into garlic powder from country to country because of its long shelf life. What’s more, the garlic powder can also reduce the transportation cost and thus the investors can earn more foreign exchange when exporting garlic products. There are two common garlic powder production technology: roasted garlic powder processing and dehydrated garlic powder processing. In some country’s medical field, garlic powder can be further processed to manufacture garlicin.

2.1 Roasted Garlic Powder Production

Roasted garlic powder is great and easy to use for the full flavor of fresh garlic, without the lingering smell. Roasted garlic powder processing steps include selecting, separating, peeling, roasting, sterilizing, grinding, packing. There are several precautions when processing roasted garlic powder:
◆ Garlic without insects and impurities will be a good selection.
◆ After separating and peeling, the garlic bulbs are slowly roasted in a roasting machine until they are deeply caramelized, sticky and smell savory, sweet and addictive. And the roasted ed garlic should be sterilized.
◆After sterilization, the roasted garlic will be ground and until the powder particles can go through a fine screen of 120 mesh.
Roasted garlic powder should be stored in a cool and dry place. It is popular in Asian, Cajun, Chinese, Creole, French, Greek, Indian, Italian, Korean, Mediterranean, Mexican, Middle Eastern, Moroccan, Thai and Vietnamese cuisines.

2.2 Dehydrated Garlic Powder Processing Steps

Garlic powder processing techniques are different with different processing steps, the following is one kind of garlic powder process which mainly include: selecting, separating, cleaning, peeling, crushing, dehydrating, grinding and packing.

(1 ) Garlic selecting

The material selecting can directly affect the output of garlic powder, the finished product’s quality and its storage time. Thus, the well-matured garlic with yellow leaves and dry stems in harvest will be a good selection for making garlic powder. Then, select the big, white garlic bulbs without mildew or germination, the worm-eaten, rotten and mechanically damaged garlic should be rejected.

(2) Garlic bulb separating

Since garlic bulb’s structure is not easy to be peeled directly, garlic separating is necessary to split garlic into individual clove for easy peeling. Customers can choose manual or mechanical separating according to garlic’s total amounts.

(3) Garlic clove cleaning and peeling

Next, garlic cloves are sent to garlic peeler for peeling and the dirt on peeled garlic cloves should be washed out. Then, picking out the rotten or bad cloves again in order to ensure that chosen ones have a uniform color. Finally, drain cloves and get ready to crush them.

(4) Garlic clove pulping

Crush the cleaned, peeled and drained cloves in pulping machine. Please note, you should add one-third water into the pulping machine in order that the mashed garlic will get fully pulped. Then, the pure garlic pulp can be separated from residual skins by filtering through cheesecloth.

(5) Garlic pulp dewatering and drying

◆ Dewatering
Before drying, the garlic pulp can be dewatered by squeezing with fine screen firstly. Other methods such as pressing it in an oil expeller or hanging it to remove the water are all preparations for the following drying process.
◆ Drying
Then, you can dry the garlic pulp in the drying oven. Firstly, you can spread the garlic pulp evenly on the tray which is made of stainless steel. Secondly, put trays in the drying cabinet with the temperature of 50-55℃. After about five hours’ drying, as long as the wet pulp turns into dried form and can be crumbled into powder by hand-squeezing, garlic pulp drying process is done.

(6. )Garlic powder grinding

After drying, the dried garlic pulp should be ground by grinder immediately in order to get a uniform powder. Then, filter the garlic powder through fine screen again for getting finer end products.

(7. ) Garlic powder packing

Pack the qualified garlic powder in the sealed plastic bags or damp-proof sacks. According to the market demands, there are two main packing types: one is packing pure garlic powder with label and product name, another is packing the garlic powder mixed with other seasoning powders such as ginger powder, pepper powder, cinnamon powder with label and product name. Normally, the packed garlic powder can be preserved in a cool, dry place for 6-7 months after selling.

2.3 Garlic Powder Further Processing: Garlicin Making

(1) Garlicin making belongs to garlic powder further processing field, garlicin is in garlic volatile oil. The technology is extracting garlicin from mixed garlic-alcohol solution by supercritical CO2 fluid, both alcohol and supercritical CO2 are used as extraction agents and they can increase the garlicin extraction rate.
(2) Processing requirements
Firstly, choose a clean, mature, fresh garlic bulb without worm-eaten or stain to peel and clean.
Secondly, crush and dry. Use the garlic paste grinding machine to grind garlic bulbs into garlic paste and then put garlic paste into drying oven. The temperature should be at 60℃-65℃ for 6-8 hours. You should turn over the garlic paste every two hours for evenly drying.
Thirdly, grind the dried garlic paste into 80-100 mesh fine powder and pour the garlic powder into alcohol (garlic and alcohol’s ratio is 1:3), soaking 6 hours and preparing for extraction.
Forth, extraction by using the technology of supercritical CO2 extraction. Extract the upper layer liquid, which is garlicin liquid.
Garlicin could be used in the medical field such as antibiotics substitute partially because it can reduce bacterial drug resistance to some degree.

III. Garlic Powder World Market

Garlic is mainly cultivated in Asia, America and trading in China, India, U.S. etc. In the trading market, garlic is normally sold in fresh, dehydrated, frozen and seed forms. Among varies forms of garlic products, powdered garlic has delicate quality & light package and this is one of the most popular trading forms.

1. India Market

India is garlic’s third production country in the world annually. In the domestic market, fresh garlic is usually consumed in abundance. While in the export market, India normally exports dehydrated garlic flakes & powders to Japan, UK, Italy, Turkey, Ger­many, and France because the fresh one is easy to perish. Therefore the dehydrated products have gained an important place in the globe nowadays, and in many countries, the dehydrated garlic products are being used as a replacement for the fresh garlic.

2. U.S. Market

In the U.S. Market, garlic can be divided into the fresh market, dried market and seed stock. In the U.S., fresh garlic’s market is around 25%, the rest 75% is dried garlic and seed markets. American’s per capita consumption of garlic is around 2.3 pounds annually and America’s source of imports are China, Mexico, and Argentina.
Take California as an example, it’s estimated that California’s annual consumption is around 6 million pounds, and 60% of the consumed products are dehydrated garlic, with 20% to 20% are fresh garlic and garlic seed. In California, the domestic cultivated garlic is competed with new materials and the imported garlic in the trading market, according to statistics, imports of garlic account for around one-third of the garlic market share in California. California’s garlic industry is full of challenges and opportunities.

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