Abstract: The invention is a method and apparatus for removing veneer coating shards from granular, medicinal formulations which are being reworked. The formulation is ground up, sifted to remove the smaller pieces which do not contain veneer shards, and then placed into an air suspension under an inverted funnel-like separator cone. The separator cone has air outlets for the air suspension apparatus, as well as a vacuum inlet, adjacent its upper end. The light veneer shards ride up the sloped walls of the separator cone, and they are sucked into the vacuum inlet, thereby removing them from the granulation.