To provide an apparatus which surely separates and removes foreign matter, such as hair, insect shells, paper pieces, thread dust, plastic pieces, wooden pieces and dust, intruded into food materials in a production process for the food materials consisting of granular and massive dry vegetables without changing the existing apparatus line in a final stage.

A needle-like electrode 18 into which blowers 17 and 18 are built, and a plane electrode 10 are arranged on both sides of the falling locus of objects 15 which are released from the end of an endless belt 14 and fall by drawing parabolas. The foreign matter 21 which is relatively light in weight and has large shape resistance is separated from the materials 20 to be separated by blowing of air and is electrified by the corona discharge field of an anode formed by the needle-like electrode 18. The separated and electrified foreign matter is sucked to the plane electrode 19 of a cathode, is neutralized after adsorption and is dropped. The foreign matter is then recovered into a recovering box 25. The materials 20 to be separated which are relatively large in weight and small in shape resistance are less affected by the blowers and are dropped and recovered as they are into a recovering box 26.