Labneh, Tahini & Mezze Filling Machine
Traditional Middle Eastern products packaged with modern automation. The SDH-R fills labneh, tahini, baba ganoush, and mezze cups for domestic and export markets.
Labneh, tahini, baba ganoush, muhammara, and hummus are the cornerstone products of Middle Eastern food culture — and increasingly, global food culture. The SDH-R is the machine of choice for Middle Eastern food producers scaling from artisan production to retail and export volumes. It handles the full viscosity range from thin tahini to thick strained labneh, with MAP options for the 30–45 day shelf life required by overseas distributors.
Built for Middle Eastern Food Production
Full Viscosity Range
From thin, pourable tahini to ultra-thick strained labneh — the servo piston adapts stroke speed and force per product without hardware changes.
Export-Ready Shelf Life
MAP nitrogen flushing extends refrigerated shelf life to 30–45+ days, meeting the requirements of US, Canadian, and EU import distributors.
Halal-Compatible Hygiene
304 stainless steel construction with CIP sanitation supports halal-certified production facilities. No animal-derived materials in product-contact surfaces.
Multi-Language HMI
Siemens PLC with HMI interface available in English and Arabic (on request), supporting operators in Middle Eastern production facilities.
SDH-R Configuration for Middle Eastern
Products We Fill
Available In These Markets
How the SDH-R Fills Middle Eastern
Fully automatic process from empty cup to sealed product — no manual labour required
Cup Denesting
Empty cups are automatically separated from a nested stack and placed into the rotary table carriers. The pneumatic denester handles round, square, and rectangular cups from 2oz to 32oz — ideal for the standard middle eastern cup formats your customers expect.
Servo-Driven Filling
The volumetric piston filler draws a precise dose of middle eastern and dispenses it into the cup. Servo control adjusts stroke length and speed per recipe, maintaining ±0.5% fill-weight accuracy across production runs. The PLC stores recipes for quick changeovers between product variants.
Membrane Heat Sealing
Roll-stock film is drawn across the filled cup and heat-sealed to create a tamper-evident, airtight membrane. Sealing temperature, pressure, and dwell time are individually controlled to match your specific film and cup material combination.
Snap-On Lid (Optional)
A pick-and-place mechanism applies a consumer-friendly snap-on plastic lid over the membrane seal. This two-barrier system provides both tamper evidence and reclosability — the standard expected by grocery retailers and foodservice distributors.
MAP Nitrogen Flush (Optional)
Modified Atmosphere Packaging replaces oxygen in the headspace with food-grade nitrogen immediately before sealing. For middle eastern, this typically extends refrigerated shelf life from 7–10 days to 30–45+ days — a requirement for most retail distribution channels.
Labneh Filling Machine Configuration: Thick Curd, Oil Toppings and Tahini
Labneh is one of the stiffest products we fill. Strained to a dense, spoonable curd, it does not level itself in the cup the way hummus or stirred yogurt does, and it still carries whey that can weep after filling. A labneh filling machine therefore has to do three things well: deposit a dense product without trapping air, leave a neat surface, and keep whey and oil off the sealing flange.
Depositing strained labneh without voids
Stiff curd tends to rope out of the nozzle and fold over on itself, leaving air pockets that show as voids against a clear cup wall and make a cup look short even when the weight is right. On the SDH-R we address this through nozzle selection and the servo-driven piston's discharge profile, both stored in the recipe, so the curd builds up from the base rather than folding. Labneh also firms as it cools, so a consistent temperature from the strainer to the hopper keeps the deposit repeatable from the first cup to the last.
Signature toppings in one pass
The SDH-R carries up to three fillers in one pass, so a labneh base from the volumetric piston filler can be paired with up to two of these toppings:
- An olive oil pool or drizzle dosed by the optional peristaltic pump.
- Za'atar, sumac or a spice blend from the optional vibration filler.
- Mint, nigella seeds or chopped nuts from the optional garnish filler.
Oil toppings are where labneh cups most often fail at the seal, because a splash of olive oil on the flange stops the membrane fusing. Dose the oil as a controlled pool in the center of the cup and confirm seal temperature, pressure and dwell on your cup and film before production.
Tahini and mezze on the same line
Many Middle Eastern producers pack labneh, tahini and hummus under one roof. Tahini is an oil-continuous sesame paste that flows far more freely than labneh and separates on standing, so it needs its own recipe, a drip-free suck-back nozzle and close attention to oil on the flange. Our dedicated tahini filling machine page covers it in detail, and our baba ganoush filling machine page applies the same rules to tahini-rich eggplant dips.
Allergen scheduling and shelf life
Labneh contains milk. Tahini is sesame, the ninth major US allergen since January 1, 2023, a priority allergen in Canada and one of the EU's 14 listed allergens. Running both on one SDH-R calls for a planned sequence and a verified clean between them using CIP and tool-free strip-down. For export and long-distance retail, optional nitrogen flushing reduces residual oxygen to 0.3–0.4%, which helps limit surface mold; typical refrigerated life moves from roughly 7–10 days toward 30–45+ days, depending on your formulation. Our MAP cup filling machine page explains the trade-offs.
Labneh, Tahini & Mezze Filling Machine — Frequently Asked Questions
A labneh filling machine doses strained yogurt cheese into cups or tubs and seals them. The SDH-R from Hummus Pack is a rotary labneh filling machine that denests pre-formed cups, fills labneh with a servo-driven piston at ±0.5% accuracy, adds optional toppings such as olive oil or za'atar, heat-seals a membrane and can place a plastic lid, at up to 30 cups per minute.
The SDH-R labneh filling machine starts from $45,000 USD in its single-filler configuration, suitable for plain or flavored labneh in standard 4 oz, 8 oz, 10 oz or 16 oz cups. Adding an olive oil or spice topping station, nitrogen MAP flushing, lid placement, coding or labeling raises the price. Send your product, cup size and target speed for a labneh line quote.
Yes. The SDH-R fills both labneh and tahini by switching stored HMI recipes that set piston stroke, fill speed and seal parameters, and changeover between SKUs takes under about 15 minutes. Because labneh contains milk and tahini is sesame, an allergen changeover also needs a full clean and verification, so many producers group runs by allergen. See our tahini filling machine page for tahini-specific settings.
The SDH-R runs up to 30 cups per minute on a dry cycle and typically 18–25 cups per minute in production. Stiff strained labneh, large cups and extra topping stations pull output toward the lower end of that range, while softer labneh in smaller cups runs faster. Our engineering team estimates a realistic rate from your product details, cup size and fill weight before quoting.
Common formats for labneh and mezze are round or rectangular cups and tubs from 4 oz to 16 oz with a peelable membrane and a snap-on lid. The SDH-R handles 4, 8, 10 and 16 oz cups as standard and 2–32 oz with custom tooling, in round, square or rectangular shapes. It fills pre-formed cups; it does not thermoform cups or fill jars.
The SDH-R is CE marked, UL listed and built in 304 stainless steel with FDA-compliant food-contact materials, and it is designed to support plants operating under HACCP, BRCGS, SQF, FSMA preventive controls or Canada's Safe Food for Canadians Regulations. Export approval depends on your facility, labeling and shelf-life data rather than the machine alone. Optional nitrogen flushing helps extend refrigerated life for long distribution chains.
Ready to Package Middle Eastern?
Get a personalized SDH-R configuration quote for your product and production volume.