Maca drying process

In the drying process, it is necessary to master the three stages: low temperature → high temperature → cooling.

1. At the first stage, as the Maca is just entering the furnace, the water content is still very high, thus the temperature should gradually increased and should maintained for 12-15 hours to gradually evaporate the water.

The temperature is adjusted at 35℃-45℃, and the humidity is set at 30%. It should last for 1 day to drain out the water.

2.The temperature of the second stage is gradually increased and should set at 55°C-60°C, and the humidity is adjusted at 38% to automatically discharge the water vapor.

This stage should lasts for 12 hours to discharge most of the water.

3.In the third stage, the temperature is lowered to 45°C-55°C, the humidity is adjusted at 35%. When the weight of the fruit is reduced to 25-30% of the fresh fruit, the machine will be turned off automatically and will cool down naturally.

The Mace could be take out after cooling.

Tips

During the drying process, the temperature between the baking trays are different.

In order to make the Mace be heated evenly, the oven at the upper, middle, or bottom layers should be changed each day, and the fruit at the edge or at the center should be flipped.

Due to the difference in quality, maturity and size of maca, those Macas that has not been dried in the first drying stage should be selected for re-drying.

When Maca is just picked, the moisture content is 70%.

The maca is suitable to be stored if the moisture content is between 10-20%.

The drying temperature should controlled below 50 ℃.

It is recommended to use two units to dry the maca in the left and right convection form, so that the drying temperature is uniform.