A method is shown for producing food grade hydrated lime. A source of raw, hydrated lime is first passed through a classification step which divides the raw hydrated lime into a first fine stream and a first coarse stream. The first fine stream is passed through a further separation step and, without being recombined with the first coarse stream is separated out to form a very fine sized product which meets CODEX chemical specifications. The additional separation step may be a wet process and may utilize a hydrocyclone type separator.