Baba Ganoush Filling Machine
Fill, seal and cup roasted eggplant dip at up to 30 cups per minute — an SDH-R baba ganoush filling machine built for fibrous strands, char flecks and surface oil drizzle.
The SDH-R from Alter Pack is a fully automatic baba ganoush filling machine that denests, fills, nitrogen-flushes, heat-seals and caps roasted eggplant dip in a single rotary pass at up to 30 cups per minute. A servo-driven volumetric piston with a generous bore moves fibrous eggplant strands and smoky char flecks without shearing them, holding ±0.5% fill weight from 50g to 500g. Built in Calgary, Alberta from food-grade 304 stainless steel and certified CE, FDA and UL, it runs the same frame as our hummus filling machine. Request a configured quote.
Why the SDH-R Excels at Baba Ganoush
Wide-Bore Piston for Fibrous Eggplant
Roasted eggplant leaves long fibrous strands that wedge in a narrow valve. The SDH-R specifies a generous piston and nozzle bore so strands and char flecks pass whole, without shredding the rustic texture buyers expect.
Gentle Agitation for Uneven Batches
Body varies batch to batch with the eggplant crop and the roast. Slow, gentle hopper agitation keeps the mash uniform between draws, so the first cup of a run and the thousandth fill the same.
Second Station for the Oil Drizzle
Up to three filler stations run in one pass: base dip, a surface olive-oil drizzle, then sumac, parsley or pine-nut garnish. Retail-ready presentation without a second handling step or a hand-finish table.
MAP Nitrogen for 30-45+ Day Shelf Life
An optional nitrogen flush before the seal displaces headspace oxygen, taking refrigerated shelf life from roughly 7-10 days to 30-45 or more — the code date national grocery buyers ask for on a mezze line.
What a Baba Ganoush Filling Machine Actually Has to Handle
Roasted eggplant is not hummus. Where a chickpea purée is smooth and uniformly pumpable, baba ganoush reaches the hopper as a loose, weeping mash carrying long fibrous strands of eggplant flesh, blackened skin flecks from the char, and free oil that migrates to the top of the batch. Any baba ganoush filling machine that treats it like a smooth dip will bridge in the valve, shred the texture, or drift on weight within an hour of start-up.
The three failure modes to design out
- Strand wedging. Fibrous eggplant catches in a narrow rotary valve or small nozzle bore and slowly chokes the shot. The SDH-R is specified with a generous piston and nozzle bore so whole strands pass rather than pack.
- Batch-to-batch body. Eggplant varies with variety, size, moisture and roast time, so one kettle runs looser than the next. Gentle hopper agitation keeps the mash uniform between draws instead of letting solids settle and oil float.
- Visible particulates. Smoky char flecks are a selling point, not a defect. Low-shear dosing keeps them intact and visible through the film rather than smearing them into grey streaks.
Get those three right and the rest of the line is ordinary work: denest, fill, seal, cap. Get them wrong and you spend the shift chasing weights, clearing a packed nozzle and hand-topping cups that came out light.
Eggplant dip is rarely the only SKU in the plant, so the same chassis has to run the rest of the chilled case. Producers who start here typically also run our hummus filling machine configuration and a labneh and tahini filling recipe on the identical frame, each stored as its own PLC job. The wetted-part detail behind all three builds is set out on the SDH-R machine page.
Automatic Baba Ganoush Filling Machine: Servo Piston Dosing to ±0.5%
The SDH-R doses with a servo-driven volumetric piston rather than a pump or an auger. The servo controls draw speed and discharge speed independently, which matters with eggplant: draw too fast and the piston pulls air and fibre unevenly, giving a light cup; discharge too fast and you tear strands and splash the rim. Set correctly, the machine holds ±0.5% fill-weight accuracy anywhere between 50g and 500g.
What ±0.5% is worth in a shift
Most plants overfill to protect the declared weight. On a 227g (8oz) cup, a three percent safety margin is roughly seven grams of free product in every unit — and the give-away is tahini, olive oil and roasted eggplant, the three most expensive things in the recipe. Tightening the fill distribution is usually the fastest payback an automatic baba ganoush filling machine delivers, before you count the labour it replaces. A servo piston also repeats: the same stored recipe run next Tuesday produces the same weight distribution, which is what a retail weights-and-measures audit actually tests.
Three filling stations, one index
The SDH-R accepts up to three filler stations. A typical eggplant dip layout is straightforward: station one deposits the base dip, station two lays a surface olive-oil drizzle into the classic well, station three drops sumac, chopped parsley, pomegranate or toasted pine nuts. All of it happens inside the same rotary index, so a garnished, retail-ready cup leaves the machine without a second handling step.
Rated throughput is up to 30 cups per minute on a dry cycle; with a viscous, particulate product like baba ganoush, plan around a real-world 18-25 CPM depending on cup size, fill weight and whether MAP nitrogen is running. Send your recipe, cup and target weight to our Calgary engineering team before you size the line.
Baba Ganoush Packaging Machine: Sealing, MAP Nitrogen & Shelf Life
Sealing is where oily dips fail. Baba ganoush carries free olive oil and tahini, and any film of oil on the cup flange stops the heat seal wetting out — producing a weld that survives the machine and fails in a delivery van. The SDH-R controls seal temperature, pressure and dwell as three independent parameters, so you can dial in a bond that works through a trace of oil without scorching the film or deforming the rim.
Rim cleanliness matters as much as the parameters. A controlled deposit, the right nozzle height and suck-back at cut-off stop the fill and drizzle stations throwing oil onto the flange in the first place, which is always cheaper than compensating for it at the sealing head.
Lidding options on the same head
- Roll-film membrane seal. The standard tamper-evident closure, die-cut and welded in station, printed with your artwork and showing any breach clearly.
- Pre-cut lids. Fed as discs where roll film is impractical for the format or the artwork.
- Snap-on lids. Applied over the membrane for a resealable two-barrier pack — the format most delis and club stores expect on a 16oz mezze tub.
MAP nitrogen flush
Oxygen is the enemy of an eggplant dip: it dulls the smoky top notes, browns the cut surface and oxidises the sesame and olive oil. The optional nitrogen flush purges headspace in the instant before the film closes. In practice that moves refrigerated shelf life from roughly 7-10 days to 30-45 days or more, which is what turns a farmers-market SKU into a chain-grocery listing with a code date a distributor can build a route around.
The same sealing station serves the wider dip filling and sealing machine range, so seal validation done on baba ganoush transfers straight to your other cold dips and spreads.
Cup Sizes, Changeover, Price & Lead Time for a Mezze Filling Machine
Standard cup sizes are 4, 8, 10 and 16oz, with custom tooling from 2oz single-serve mezze cups up to 32oz food-service tubs, in round, square or rectangular formats. A pneumatic cup denester feeds the rotary table, and the PLC with HMI stores a recipe for every SKU — fill volume, index speed, seal temperature, pressure, dwell and MAP settings — so an operator recalls a job instead of rebuilding it from memory. Fill range is 50g to 500g, so a 2oz mezze sampler and a 16oz family tub run on the same frame with a tooling change.
Changeover under roughly 15 minutes
That number is what makes a mezze filling machine viable for a producer running six or eight SKUs: baba ganoush at 227g, hummus at 283g, labneh in 8oz, muhammara in 4oz sampler cups. Every contact surface is food-grade 304 stainless steel with tool-free strip-down and CIP clean-in-place, which keeps sanitation documented and repeatable — and that matters when the recipe declares sesame from the tahini as an allergen. Operators change cup tooling, load the next film reel, recall the recipe and run: no fitter, and no half-shift of trial cups to re-establish weight.
Investment, delivery and support
- From $45,000 USD, depending on filler stations, MAP, lidding format and cup tooling.
- 8-12 weeks typical delivery from order confirmation.
- Footprint 44 x 52 in, so it drops into an existing cold room without a floor-plan rebuild.
- 12-month warranty, supported from service centres in Alberta, New Jersey and California.
Every SDH-R is designed and built in Calgary, Alberta by Alter Pack and is CE, FDA and UL certified. Review the full SDH-R specification, then tell us your product, cup and target weight and we will quote a configured baba ganoush filling machine for your line.
Certified, Food-Grade Engineering Behind Every Baba Ganoush Filling Machine
CE, FDA & UL Certified
Every SDH-R ships with CE (European conformity), FDA (US food-contact) and UL (electrical safety) documentation - the paperwork your auditor, insurer and electrical authority ask to see.
Food-Grade 304 Stainless Steel
All product-contact surfaces are food-grade 304 stainless with CIP clean-in-place and tool-free strip-down, built for HACCP and BRCGS-audited facilities.
Servo-Driven Precision
A closed-loop servo volumetric piston holds +/-0.5% fill-weight accuracy across the full 50-500 g range, protecting net-content compliance and cutting product give-away.
Made in Calgary by Alter Pack
Designed and built in Calgary, Alberta, Canada by Alter Pack, with a 12-month warranty and North American service centres in Alberta, New Jersey and California.
SDH-R Baba Ganoush Filling Machine - Full Specifications
Complete specification for the SDH-R automatic rotary cup filling, sealing and cupping machine.
| Specification | SDH-R |
|---|---|
| Throughput | Up to 30 cups per minute (dry cycle) |
| Real-world output | 18-25 cups/min depending on product, cup size & options |
| Fill range | 50 g - 500 g (2 oz - 17 oz) |
| Fill-weight accuracy | +/-0.5% (servo-driven volumetric piston) |
| Standard cup sizes | 4 oz, 8 oz, 10 oz, 16 oz |
| Custom cup sizes | 2 oz - 32 oz with matching tooling |
| Cup shapes | Round, square, rectangular |
| Sealing | Roll-film membrane heat seal (tamper-evident) |
| Lidding options | Pre-cut lid | snap-on lid (pick-and-place) |
| Shelf-life option | MAP nitrogen flush - 7-10 days to 30-45+ days refrigerated |
| Filler stations | Up to 3 (base + drizzle + garnish in one pass) |
| Construction | Food-grade 304 stainless steel |
| Cleaning | CIP clean-in-place + tool-free strip-down |
| Controls | PLC + HMI with recipe storage & diagnostics |
| Changeover | Under ~15 minutes between SKUs |
| Certifications | CE, FDA, UL |
| Footprint | 44 x 52 in (1,100.5 x 1,315.5 mm) |
| Height | 65.6 in |
| Origin | Made in Calgary, Alberta, Canada by Alter Pack |
| Warranty | 12 months |
| Delivery | 8-12 weeks from order confirmation |
| Starting price | From $45,000 USD |
The SDH-R Baba Ganoush Filling Machine
Products It Fills
Available In These Markets
How the SDH-R Fills & Seals Baba Ganoush
Fully automatic from empty cup to sealed, retail-ready product - no manual labour
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.
Servo-Driven Filling
The volumetric piston filler draws a precise dose and dispenses it into the cup. Servo control adjusts stroke length and speed per recipe, maintaining plus/minus 0.5% fill-weight accuracy. The PLC stores recipes for quick changeovers.
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 film and cup materials.
Snap-On Lid (Optional)
A pick-and-place mechanism applies a consumer-friendly snap-on lid over the membrane seal - a two-barrier system providing tamper evidence and reclosability for grocery retail and foodservice.
MAP Nitrogen Flush (Optional)
Modified Atmosphere Packaging replaces headspace oxygen with food-grade nitrogen immediately before sealing, typically extending refrigerated shelf life from 7-10 days to 30-45+ days.
Baba Ganoush Filling Machine - Frequently Asked Questions
The SDH-R starts from $45,000 USD. Final price depends on how many filler stations you need for drizzle and garnish, whether you add MAP nitrogen, your lidding format and cup tooling. Typical delivery is 8-12 weeks from order confirmation, and every machine ships with a 12-month warranty and CE, FDA and UL certification.
Rated speed is up to 30 cups per minute on a dry cycle. With real baba ganoush, plan on 18-25 cups per minute in production, because viscosity, particulate size, fill weight, cup diameter and MAP nitrogen dwell all affect the index. We will model your actual figure from your recipe and cup before quoting.
Not with the right bore. Baba ganoush is specified with a generous piston and nozzle bore so long fibrous strands pass whole instead of wedging in a narrow valve. Gentle hopper agitation keeps the batch uniform, and low-shear dosing preserves the smoky char flecks as visible particulates rather than grey smears.
Refrigerated eggplant dip sealed in air typically holds around 7-10 days. With the optional nitrogen flush purging headspace oxygen immediately before the membrane seals, that commonly extends to 30-45 days or more. The gain comes from slowing oxidation of the sesame and olive oil and protecting colour and smoky aroma.
All product-contact surfaces are food-grade 304 stainless steel with tool-free strip-down, and CIP clean-in-place handles the circuit you cannot reach by hand. Because baba ganoush declares sesame from the tahini, most plants strip, CIP, swab-test to their allergen programme, then recall the next recipe on the HMI — changeover runs under roughly 15 minutes.
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