SELECTION manual and visual selection of some dehydrated necessary, as the particle size may not lend itself to electronic colour sorting The latter method can be adopted for free-flowing material, such as dice, peas and some flaked vegetables, but is unsuitable for strips, rings and leaf products. Manual selection of dehydrates is carried out on PVC-coated inspection belts 7m long and 60cm wide for a medium throughput deally, these belts should be fitted with a feed hopper incorporating a vibrating tray or chute, giving a controlled and metered feed of material across the belt. Bucket and belt elevators, and auger feeds, should be avoided in conveying diced material at any point of the process, as these cause severe abrasion and loss of product, and they are difficult to clean. a well-designed elevator, with moulded rubber flights, or a spiral vibratory elevator are the only satisfactory means of elevating and conveyin ng dry material The selection belts should accommodate a team of women on either side and there should be good natural light in day-time, as the inspection is tedious and liable to cause eyestrain in poor light. Whilst white is an hygienic colour for belts, it may be found beneficial to use other colours which will highlight the blemish that has to be removed There is always a risk of metal abrasion in the plant at some point or another, and it is essential to have a series of powerful permanent magnets fitted on the selection belts. One of these should bridge the belt, across its width, just high enough to allow the material to pass underneath. At the end of the belt, where the material discharges, it is a wise precaution to have a second pair of magnets set at about 45 to each other, over and under which the product cascades into the collecting hopper These magnets will, of course, only abstract ferrous metal, and most processors install a more sophisticated electronic detector for all types of non ferrous foreign matter which may pass over the belt. These detectors are designed to stop the belt when any extraneous matter is detected, and it is then The speed of the selection belts should be from 4 to 5m per minute, according to the capability and availability of the staff and the means of selecting efficiently. The recommended loading rate for onion slices, for Xample, is 250g per metre of belt length. ELECTRONIC COLOUR SORTING This method has made tremendous strides in the last five years, and Sortex Ltd of London are specialists in this field, having made an extensive study of the dehydrator's requirements Their machines are capable of efficient throughputs of vegetable dice, flakes, peas and particles smaller than dice, although in the latter case theSELECTION Manual and visual selection of some dehydrated products is still necessary, as the particle size may not lend itself to electronic colour sorting. The latter method can be adopted for free-flowing material, such as dice, peas and some flaked vegetables, but is unsuitable for strips, rings and leaf products. Manual selection of dehydrates is carried out on PVC-coated inspection belts 7m long and 60cm wide for a medium throughput. Ideally, these belts should be fitted with a feed hopper incorporating a vibrating tray or chute, giving a controlled and metered feed of material across the belt. Bucket and belt elevators, and auger feeds, should be avoided in conveying diced material at any point of the process, as these cause severe abrasion and loss of product, and they are difficult to clean. A well-designed elevator, with moulded rubber flights, or a spiral vibratory elevator are the only satisfactory means of elevating and conveying dry materials. The selection belts should accommodate a team of women on either side and there should be good natural light in day-time, as the inspection is tedious and liable to cause eyestrain in poor light. Whilst white is an hygienic colour for belts, it may be found beneficial to use other colours which will highlight the blemish that has to be removed. There is always a risk of metal abrasion in the plant at some point or another, and it is essential to have a series of powerful permanent magnets fitted on the selection belts. One of these should bridge the belt, across its width, just high enough to allow the material to pass underneath. At the end of the belt, where the material discharges, it is a wise precaution to have a second pair of magnets set at about 45" to each other, over and under which the product cascades into the collecting hopper. These magnets will, of course, only abstract ferrous metal, and most processors install a more sophisticated electronic detector for all types of non ferrous foreign matter which may pass over the belt. These detectors are designed to stop the belt when any extraneous matter is detected, and it is then manually removed. The speed of the selection belts should be from 4 to 5m per minute, according to the capability and availability of the staff and the means of selecting efficiently. The recommended loading rate for onion slices, for example, is 250g per metre of belt length. ELECTRONIC C O L O U R S O R T I N G This method has made tremendous strides in the last five years, and Sortex Ltd of London are specialists in this field, having made an extensive study of the dehydrator's requirements. Their machines are capable of efficient throughputs of vegetable dice, flakes, peas and particles smaller than dice, although in the latter case the 227