Processing raw cashews involves several steps, including roasting, shelling, drying, peeling, grading, quality controls, fumigation, and packaging. Each step significantly impacts the quality of the final product. Shelling extracts the edible nut from the hard shell, drying reduces the moisture content to prevent mould growth, and peeling removes the seed coat to reveal the ivory-coloured kernel. Grading sorts the cashews by size, colour, and quality, while quality controls ensure that only the finest cashews reach consumers.
At Cashew Coast, there are 5 Steps to Processing Raw Cashews.
You can find full details about our approach to processing cashew nuts here.
1. Preparation
Cashew nuts begin as part of a unique fruit called the cashew apple. After harvesting, farmers separate the raw cashew nut from the apple and dry it in the sun for several days to reduce the moisture content.
The nuts are taken to the factory where they are further dried to get the moisture content to about 8%, then stored in warehouses until processing. When ready for processing, the cashews undergo calibration and cleaning, where they are sorted by size and foreign matter is removed.
Finally, the nuts are heat-treated, typically through steam-boiling, to weaken their tough shells in preparation for de-shelling. This careful preparation ensures the cashews are in optimal condition for further processing and eventual consumption.
How Drying Influences Cashew Quality
The drying process significantly impacts the quality of cashew nuts, affecting their shelf life, nutritional content, and overall sensory characteristics. Proper drying is essential to prevent mould growth and maintain the nuts' quality. The drying temperature and period have been found to influence the chemical properties of cashew nuts, including moisture content, oil extraction, and residual sugar content.
Cashew Coast maintains high standards by optimising the drying process to preserve the nuts' nutritional quality and sensory attributes (color, texture, flavor, smell, and appearance). This includes carefully controlling the drying temperature and period to achieve the desired chemical properties and prevent quality degradation.
Additionally, the company implements quality improvement tools and techniques, such as ISO 22000 and Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA), to ensure that critical control points in the drying process are identified and managed effectively, further contributing to maintaining high-quality standards.
2. Shelling
Shelling, or de-shelling, is a crucial step in cashew processing that involves breaking and removing the outer shell without damaging the kernel inside. This complex process requires precise machinery calibration or careful manual labour.
Cashew nuts have two shells: an outer pericarp and an inner endocarp, separated by a honeycomb-like cavity. The shells contain an acidic substance called Cashew Nut Shell Liquid (CNSL), which can cause severe skin damage to workers and it can also promote the development of MOSH/MOAH.
CNSL is composed of four main compounds, including anacardic acid. Due to the hazardous nature of CNSL, many processors, like Cashew Coast, now use automatic shelling machines to protect workers and improve efficiency.
How Shelling Influences Cashew Quality
The shelling process is critical in determining cashew quality. The shelling method, whether manual or mechanical, can affect the kernels' integrity and the nuts' overall quality.
While manual shelling can produce higher-value whole nuts, it is slower and can lead to fewer breakages, affecting the final product's quality. This is why so many companies still do it manually.
Mechanical shelling, while more efficient, can be challenging due to cashew nuts' irregular size and shape. It is, therefore, difficult to shell perfect, whole nuts.
Cashew Coast maintains high standards by employing advanced mechanised processing for shelling, which minimises breakage and ensures the production of premium kernels. This approach aligns with the company's commitment to superior quality and safety, as evidenced by its BRC certification and adherence to the highest food standards.
3. Peeling
After shelling, the cashew kernel is covered with a thin brown seed coat called testa, which must be removed. The kernels are dried in hot chambers to reduce moisture and loosen the testa, making it brittle for easier peeling. This drying process also helps eliminate any remaining Cashew Nut Shell Liquid (CNSL) and deactivate urushiol, an irritant.
Following drying, the kernels are humidified with steam or water to prevent brittleness. Peeling is then performed, traditionally by hand, but now often by machines using air pressure and friction.
Maintaining hygienic practices during peeling is crucial to ensure high-quality kernels.
How Peeling Influences Cashew Quality
The peeling process is a crucial step in cashew nut processing, as it impacts the quality of the final product. Cashews have a double-layered shell, with the outer layer being toxic, so peeling is essential to make the nuts edible and ready for various uses. There are two primary methods of peeling: hand peeling and mechanical peeling. Hand-peeling is a traditional method that ensures minimal kernel damage but is time-consuming and labour-intensive.
On the other hand, mechanical peeling is faster and more efficient but may damage the kernels. The peeling process involves removing the cashew seed coat's outer skin, known as the testa, to reveal the ivory-coloured cashew kernel.
Quality control is crucial to ensure that only the outer shell is removed while keeping the inner kernel intact, as any damage to the kernels can affect the taste and texture of the cashews. Over-processing can lead to broken or damaged nuts, reducing the cashews' quality and market value. Therefore, maintaining the integrity of the kernels during the peeling process is essential for producing high-quality cashew nuts.
4. Grading and Inspection
Grading and sorting is a crucial step in cashew processing. It involves classifying kernels based on size, colour, and shape using colour sorters and optical machinery. However, human expertise remains essential, with a final round of manual grading performed by skilled workers. This process requires great attention to detail, with workers capable of grading about 80kg of kernels per 8-hour day. While automated systems are used, human intervention is still key for finishing the peeling process and ensuring quality.
The grading standards in the cashew industry were established in India in the 1960s under the Export (Quality Control and Inspection) Act of 1963, defining 33 different grades, later reduced to 26. However, these standards don’t always align with what truly matters to today’s European consumers and their concerns for the planet.
At Cashew Coast, we believe using four functional grades based on product applications makes more sense than size, colour, or shape. And we believe true premium means fully traceable to the farm.
We focus on producing premium cashews that are both high-quality and responsibly sourced.
The Impact of Grading and Quality Controls on Cashew Quality
The assessment of cashew nuts is greatly influenced by the grading process, which has been revolutionised by technological advancements, enabling precise and efficient sorting. The size of a cashew nut is determined by the number of nuts per pound and the kernel's length, width, and thickness. Grading ensures that only the finest cashews meet the high standards set by buyers and make it to the market.
Quality control measures, including strict grading and quality protocols, are essential for maintaining cashews' safety, consistency, and overall quality. These measures guarantee the excellence of cashew products and enhance customer trust and satisfaction. Technology has played a crucial role in making cashew grading faster, more efficient, and safer. Grading protocols also consider defects such as broken or shrivelled nuts, which can significantly lower product quality.
Cashew kernel colours range from light brown to dark brown, and colour uniformity is a critical criterion for quality. Maintaining these standards ensures the integrity and quality of cashews, contributing to customer satisfaction and overall market confidence.
Quality controls play a vital role in ensuring the consistency and excellence of cashew nuts. They encompass various processes implemented at different stages of cashew production and processing. These include inspecting raw cashews to assess their physical attributes and sensory characteristics. Microbiological testing and analysis are also conducted to verify the absence of harmful pathogens. Technological advancements in grading, such as sorting machines and optical sensors, have revolutionised the efficiency and accuracy of the process, ensuring consistent quality standards are met.
These quality controls significantly impact cashew nut quality. They help optimise processing efficiency and minimise the risk of defects or impurities in the final product. Adherence to rigorous grading standards and protocols is fundamental in maintaining the integrity and quality of cashews, ultimately contributing to consumer satisfaction and confidence in the marketplace.
5. Packaging and Storage
After grading and inspection, cashew kernels undergo antimicrobial treatment using thermal and ultraviolet (UV) processing to eliminate pathogens like Salmonella and E. coli. This process includes heating with infrared lamps to 75°C, UV light exposure, and cooling to 30-35°C. The kernels are then passed through X-ray and metal detector machines to ensure they are free of foreign matter. Finally, they are packed in 50 lbs vacuum-sucked Flexi pouches, labelled for traceability, and maintained at 4% moisture to prevent breakage during packaging.
How packaging influences cashew quality.
Packaging plays a crucial role in maintaining cashew quality. Oxygen can deteriorate the quality of nuts, so it is essential to remove oxygen from the containers by flushing them with nitrogen. Cashew nuts are often vacuum-packed in Mylar bags or sealed in tin cans to prevent oxygen exposure. Additionally, the influence of packaging materials on cashew kernel hardness has been studied, with findings suggesting that the packaging material's type and thickness can affect the cashew kernels' quality, proper packaging, such as using nitrogen flushing, vacuum-packing, or suitable polyethene bags, is essential to preserve the freshness and quality of cashew nuts during storage and transportation.
Premium Cashew Coast Quality
At Cashew Coast, several additional measures are in place to ensure the quality and sustainability of our cashews. The company's cashews are traceable, pesticide-free, and certified by various organisations. They are also locally sourced and processed, promoting sustainability. Cashew Coast has won the Fairtrade Global Awards 2023, and its operations adhere to the highest standards of food safety, validated by EU and US certifications, including HACCP, BRC, and SMETA. The company's commitment to traceability allows it to measure the performance of its agroecology strategy with smallholders and mitigate risks such as MOSH/MOAH contamination. Additionally, Cashew Coast promotes a circular economy approach and natural methods for cashew growth, ensuring a sustainable and biodiverse environment.
Traceability
SAP® Rural Sourcing Management is an industry cloud solution that helps agribusiness companies build a sustainable and traceable agriculture supply chain. It is designed to connect smallholder farmers to the agricultural value chain, providing full transparency into the source of raw materials.
The solution allows for monitoring, tracking, and tracing the supply chain and analysing a large volume of real-time data to ensure full traceability and monitor output improvements from farm to fork.
It also enables compliance with current and future regulations. It provides features such as mobile access for field agents, central operations insight on any device, and executive analytics in the cloud.
Cashew Coast, a leading producer and distributor of high-quality cashew nuts, implemented SAP Rural Sourcing Management at our farming branch, Cajooma SAS, to gain traceability and visibility into the origin of our cashew nuts, thus connecting farmers and consumers in a profitable and sustainable value chain. The solution has helped Cashew Coast optimise operations and improve traceability for cashew collections, leading to immediate benefits for the farmers, including more transparent prices and better quality control.
To learn more about how Cashew Coast used SAP Rural Sourcing Management, watch "Cashew Coast maintains traceability with SAP Rural Sourcing."
Alternatively, visit the SAP website for further technical information and customer success stories related to the solution.
Free From
Pesticide residue, phthalates, mineral oil saturated hydrocarbons (MOSH), and mineral oil aromatic hydrocarbons (MOAH) are concerns in food safety.
While pesticide residue relates to the presence of pesticides in food, phthalates are a group of chemicals used to make plastics more flexible. MOSH and MOAH are complex mixtures of crude oil-derived hydrocarbons that can enter food as contaminants.
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has been working on regulations and risk assessments for these substances, with ongoing efforts to address the regulatory gaps and safeguard food. For more detailed information on MOSH, MOAH, and their risks, regulations, and safeguarding food, refer to the following article: Unravelling the MOSH and MOAH Conundrum: Risks, Regulations, and Safeguarding Your Cashews.
Sustainable & Certified
Cashew Coast is committed to sustainable and community-centric practices. We engage in responsible environmental initiatives such as replanting cashew trees, using natural methods, and achieving zero-waste production. We also focus on community empowerment, providing access to education, healthcare, and clean water sources.
Additionally, we process our cashews locally, reducing CO2 emissions and fostering sustainable relationships with farmers and factory workers. The company complies with the highest EU and US food safety standards and offers a diverse range of premium cashews. Our sustainability initiatives have been praised for fostering enduring industry-wide transformation and remaining committed to connecting farmers to consumers through profitable and sustainable value.
For more information, visit our sustainability initiatives page at Cashew Coast Sustainability Initiatives and our certifications page at Cashew Coast Certifications.
Our Cashew Grades
Cashew Coast has streamlined the 26 traditional cashew grades into 4 critical functional grades adapted to European and US product applications. The 4 key functional grades include premium whole cashews, split cashews, broken cashews, and cashew powder, suitable for various applications such as snacks, vegan products, spreads, and nut butter.
The company is committed to delivering the precise cashew grade for culinary creations.
The cashews are pesticide-free and offer a taste of fairness alongside their crisp, delightful flavour. They are also traceable with the SAP® Rural Sourcing Management solution and adhere to the highest food safety standards, which EU and we certifications, including HACCP, BRC, and SMETA, have validated. The company can produce grades to bespoke client specifications based on what they will use the product for.
