The post-harvest mechanization of makapuno processing is key to improve efficiency and quality of the product. This study aimed to design, and evaluate an electric motor-driven makapuno shredder to enhance post-harvest processing. The makapuno shredder consists of a 186 W electric motor (1725 rpm), a V-belt and pulley transmission system, the shredding blade, and the framing system. A Completely Randomized Design (CRD) was conducted to evaluate the performance of the VMAC -1 makapuno variety under three shredding treatments: 35 rpm, 144 rpm, and through the manual shredder. The shredding capacity (kg/hr), shred quality (% per class), and the total weight of shreds (g per 5 min) were the primary performance parameters.

Results revealed significant differences among treatments. The shredding capacities were 12.17 kg/hr, 13.82 kg/hr and 10.34 kg/hr for 35 rpm, 144 rpm and the manual shredder, respectively. Additionally, the total weight of shreds after 5 minutes was 1,151.27 g (144 rpm), 1,014.03 g (35 rpm), and 861.20 g (manual), which confirms that higher rpm increases the output rate. However, in the shred quality analysis, it was revealed that 144 rpm resulted in over-shredding, leading to high proportion of finer shreds and reduce shred quality. This also resulted in 77.12% of shreds in Class C (low quality) and did not yield in Class A (high quality). Conversely, the 35 rpm speed produced highest percentage of Class B shreds with 52.70% that offers balanced optimization of the shredder. Although, manual shredder produces high-quality shreds, the 35 rpm setting provides better balance between efficiency and quality. Further improvement of the design of the shredding blade is recommended to match the quality of the manual shredder. Hence, the findings suggest the need to provide an optimized mechanized processing that contributes to sustainable and scalable makapuno production.