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How to make peanut butter

The process of making peanut butter involves industrial processing equipment of a very specific nature. It is an extremely involved process – not just peanuts and butter mixed together. Here are the full details on how to make a jar of peanut butter.

  1. The right peanuts are chosen

    Runner peanuts are the best types of peanuts to use when making peanut butter. This is because they are all generally about the same size, so they roast evenly all over. When they arrive at the factory, they are already shelled and ready to be roasted.

  2. They are then roasted

    The peanuts travel through a roaster which uses hot air, heated to 204°C. The tray they are roasted on is shaken from side to side, moving the peanuts and ensuring they are all roasted evenly. Once roasted properly, they exit the roaster, going from white to a golden brown colour.

  3. The peanuts are cooled

    The next machine is a cooler which works rapidly to get the peanuts down to room temperature. A suction fan moves air through the nuts, cooling them down. Cooling the nuts fast, stops them from continuing to cook and ensures they don’t lose too much oil.

  4. The unpleasant part of the peanut is removed

    The hearts and skins of the peanuts are removed using special machinery. These parts are unpleasant to eat. The skins are sent to farmers for their pigs, whilst the hearts go into bird feed. What is left is the best part of the peanut.

  5. The nuts are milled and processed

    The peanuts are sent into the hopper of a colloid mill, before falling into a grinding machine where they are ground into a paste. The paste is then transferred into a mixing tank. It’s at this point that other ingredients, such as salt, sugar and hydrogenated vegetable oil, are added to the paste. The vegetable oil helps the peanut butter to stay bound together, ensuring the peanut oil doesn’t separate and float to the top of the jar.

  6. The peanut butter is ready to be packaged

    The peanut butter is cooled to 38°C, which is cool enough to be put into jars. The jars are then capped and an airtight seal forms between the jar and the lid.

The process of making peanut butter is complex and requires a specialised system. Interested in a process equipment company that supplies machines such as these? Acufill is the company for you, as we supply colloid Mills from Probst & Class – a world leader in Colloid Mills. Contact us today for more information.