Tzatziki Filling Machine
A fully automatic tzatziki filling machine that doses thin yogurt dip and cucumber shreds into 4-16oz cups at up to 30 cups per minute with 0.5% fill-weight accuracy.
The Hummus Pack SDH-R is a servo-driven tzatziki filling machine built for low-viscosity cultured dairy carrying shredded cucumber. Wide-bore nozzles let the shreds through, positive cut-off keeps the thin phase off the sealing rim, and gentle piston metering holds fill weights to plus or minus 0.5% from 50g to 500g without breaking the yogurt gel. A pneumatic denester feeds 4oz to 16oz cups for tamper-evident membrane sealing. Designed and built in Calgary, Alberta by Alter Pack, CE, FDA and UL certified - full specifications on the SDH-R cup filling and sealing machine page.
Why the SDH-R Excels at Tzatziki
Wide-Bore Nozzles Pass Cucumber Shreds
Shredded cucumber blocks or bridges a narrow nozzle and shears in a tight valve. Large-bore valving lets whole shreds through intact, so every cup carries the texture your recipe was written around.
Positive Cut-Off Keeps Rims Dry
A thin yogurt base wants to drip and string after the shot. Servo-controlled cut-off and retraction end the fill cleanly, leaving a dry flange so the membrane seals first time on cultured dairy.
Gentle on Shear-Sensitive Cultured Dairy
Over-worked yogurt breaks its gel, thins out and releases whey in the cup. Volumetric piston metering moves product at controlled speed rather than pumping it, protecting body, mouthfeel and set.
MAP Nitrogen for 30-45+ Day Dating
Optional nitrogen flush displaces headspace oxygen before the membrane seals, taking refrigerated tzatziki from roughly 7-10 days to 30-45 days or more and opening regional retail distribution instead of local delivery alone.
Why an Automatic Tzatziki Filling Machine Pays for Itself
Thin dips punish hand-packing. Tzatziki runs off the scoop, splashes the cup rim and scatters several grams either side of target weight, and every drip on the flange becomes a seal you cannot trust. The SDH-R automatic tzatziki filling machine turns that bench operation into one rotary index: denest the cup, dose the dip, heat-seal a tamper-evident membrane, apply a lid and discharge a finished retail pack.
Throughput is up to 30 cups per minute on a dry cycle, and in production most Greek dip packers hold a sustained 18 to 25 cups per minute once viscosity, cup size and lid handling are set. Metering is by servo-driven volumetric piston rather than a timed pump, so fill weight stays inside plus or minus 0.5% anywhere from 50g to 500g. For a thin, high-moisture product that ordinarily forces you to overfill as insurance, that accuracy is where the machine earns back its price - in yogurt you no longer give away, cup after cup, shift after shift.
Up to three product streams in one pass
- Base fill - tzatziki, raita or a cultured yogurt dip dosed through wide-bore valving.
- Drizzle - a finishing ribbon of olive oil or seasoned oil across the surface.
- Garnish - chopped dill, cracked pepper, sumac, olives or extra cucumber for a premium SKU.
All three stations index together, so a layered pack costs no extra labour and no second handling step. The frame is food-grade 304 stainless in a 44 x 52 in footprint, sized for a dairy room, commissary or co-packing bay, and the machine is designed and built in Calgary, Alberta by Alter Pack with CE, FDA and UL certification. It shares its platform with our broader dip filling and sealing machine range.
Filling a Low-Viscosity Yogurt Base with Cucumber Shreds
Tzatziki is two problems in one cup. The carrier is a low-viscosity cultured dairy base that behaves almost like a liquid at fill temperature, and suspended in it are shredded cucumber solids that keep releasing moisture. That syneresis does not stop when the batch is signed off: free whey continues to separate through the run, so the product at the end of a hopper is thinner than the product at the start, and a volumetric piston metering displaced volume will happily fill both without complaint unless the feed is managed.
Specify the fill around the real recipe
Our Calgary engineers size the nozzle, piston and fill profile against your actual formulation - cucumber cut, drain and salt step, yogurt solids, fill temperature and run length - then prove it during factory acceptance testing before the tzatziki packaging machine ships. Wide-bore valving passes shreds whole instead of chopping them into mush, and product moves at controlled velocity rather than being forced, which protects a shear-sensitive cultured base from thinning and weeping in the sealed cup.
Positive cut-off, dry flange
The thin phase is what ruins seals. Without a clean end to the shot, tzatziki strings, drips and lands on the sealing flange, and dairy residue under a membrane is the classic cause of leakers found days later in the cold chain. Servo cut-off and nozzle retraction end each fill positively, and the same volumetric platform behind our hummus filling machine handles the fast, splash-free profile a thin dip needs.
- Cucumber shred size - determines nozzle bore and valve geometry.
- Fill temperature and viscosity window - specified against your real batch, not a lab ideal.
- Target weight and cup - 50g to 500g across 4oz, 8oz, 10oz and 16oz standard cups.
- Recipe storage - PLC and HMI recall a proven profile per SKU, with changeover in under about 15 minutes.
Sealing, MAP Nitrogen & Shelf Life for Greek Dip Packaging
Cultured dairy is unforgiving at the seal. A trace of yogurt or cucumber liquor on the rim prevents the film wetting out, and the pack looks perfect leaving the line and leaks in a distributor cooler four days later. The automatic tzatziki filling machine solves that at the fill: a controlled, low-splash profile with positive cut-off keeps the flange dry, so the sealer is closing on clean plastic rather than fighting product contamination.
Independent control of the seal window
Sealing uses roll-film membrane heat seal, giving a tamper-evident lid that must be peeled or punctured to open. Temperature, pressure and dwell are each set independently, which matters with dairy: you want a full, repeatable weld without over-cooking the rim or distorting a thin-wall PP cup that has been chilled. Optional pre-cut lids suit specific artwork and barrier specs, and a snap-on lid can be applied over the membrane - worth having on tzatziki, which consumers open, use and return to the fridge several times.
Nitrogen flush on a live cultured product
Optional MAP nitrogen flush displaces headspace oxygen immediately before the membrane is sealed. On a live cultured product that never truly stops working, lower residual oxygen slows the surface changes and off-notes that make a dip look tired long before it is unsafe, and it keeps the cucumber fraction looking fresh through the back half of the code life rather than grey and watery.
- Refrigerated shelf life typically moves from around 7-10 days to 30-45 days or more.
- Longer dating supports regional retail and club distribution instead of local delivery only.
- Less headspace oxygen means slower surface changes and better day-30 appearance in the cup.
- MAP complements, and never substitutes for, cold chain, sanitation and your own validated shelf-life testing.
All product-contact surfaces are food-grade 304 stainless, and the machine is CE, FDA and UL certified, built in Calgary, Alberta by Alter Pack.
Cup Sizes, Garlic Carry-Over, CIP Cleaning, Price & Lead Time
Greek dips sell in more formats than almost any other chilled category: 2oz foodservice portions with gyro platters, 4oz and 8oz retail cups, 16oz family packs and 32oz deli tubs. The yogurt dip filling machine handles 4oz, 8oz, 10oz and 16oz cups as standard, with custom tooling from 2oz to 32oz in round, square or rectangular formats, all fed by a pneumatic cup denester that separates thin-wall PP reliably, including the lightweight formats a friction denester tends to double-pick.
Garlic carry-over and dairy allergen control
Garlic is the flavour problem nobody warns you about. Its oils cling to seals, hoses and piston bores, and a mild dill yogurt dip run straight after a heavy garlic tzatziki will taste of garlic unless the filler is properly cleaned. The SDH-R is built for CIP clean-in-place with tool-free strip-down, so operators can break down product-contact parts, wet clean them and reassemble without tools or a maintenance call. That same discipline covers dairy allergen control when the line also runs vegan or non-dairy dips, and it lets you schedule mild SKUs first and heavy garlic last with a validated clean between families.
Investment, lead time and support
- From $45,000 USD, priced by filler-station count, cup range, MAP nitrogen and lidding options.
- Delivery in 8-12 weeks, including factory acceptance testing on your own tzatziki.
- 12-month warranty, with service centres in Alberta, New Jersey and California.
- Footprint 44 x 52 in, so a first automation step rarely needs a plant expansion.
Producers running several chilled lines usually pair this with our hummus filling machine configuration on the same platform, sharing spares, operator training and recipe structure across both. Send a sample and talk to our Calgary engineers about your greek dip filling machine requirements.
Certified, Food-Grade Engineering Behind Every Tzatziki 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 Tzatziki 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 Tzatziki Filling Machine
Products It Fills
Available In These Markets
How the SDH-R Fills & Seals Tzatziki
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.
Tzatziki Filling Machine - Frequently Asked Questions
The SDH-R starts from $45,000 USD. Final pricing depends on the number of filler stations, your cup size range, and options such as MAP nitrogen flush, pre-cut lidding and snap-on lid application. Every quote includes factory acceptance testing on your own product, commissioning support and a 12-month warranty.
Up to 30 cups per minute on a dry cycle. With real tzatziki most producers hold a sustained 18 to 25 cups per minute, since a low-viscosity base needs a controlled, splash-free fill profile. Larger 16oz cups and heavier garnish stations sit toward the lower end of that range.
No. Valving is sized wide-bore around your largest shred, and the servo-driven volumetric piston moves product at controlled velocity instead of forcing it through a restriction. Shreds pass whole, and the shear-sensitive cultured base is not worked hard enough to break its gel and weep in the cup.
Refrigerated dating typically moves from roughly 7-10 days to 30-45 days or more once headspace oxygen is displaced before sealing. Real figures depend on your culture, acidity, cucumber prep, sanitation and cold chain, so treat these as planning numbers and confirm them with your own validated shelf-life study.
Schedule mild SKUs first and heavy garlic tzatziki last, then run a full clean. The machine is food-grade 304 stainless with CIP clean-in-place and tool-free strip-down, so seals, hoses and piston bores that hold garlic oils are broken out and wet cleaned without tools between product families.
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