Comparison of Dried Hot Pepper Quality and Production Efficiency by Drying Methods

Abstract

Hot pepper is a kind of seasoning vegetables, which is a major item in the Korean vegetable market. Since the use of hot pepper is processed into pepper powder, which is a powder form of dried hot pepper, improvement of quality and productivity of dried hot pepper is important. Therefore, this experiment was conducted to suggest proper drying method by comparing the changes of hot pepper powder ingredients considering production cost according to the drying method. As a drying method, we used sun drying and heat drying which are widely used in practice. We also compared the productivity and quality of dried hot pepper by applying a dehumidifying drying method using a dehumidifier. Drying rate of hot pepper was highest of 85.1% at heat drying. Accordingly moisture content of hot pepper powder was lowest of 13.5% at heat drying. The American Spice Trade Association (ASTA) color value, which influenced the coloring of red pepper, showed higher in heat drying and dehumidified drying treatment than the sun drying treatment. The content of capsaicinoids was higher at sun drying treatment than that of at both heat drying and dehumidified drying treatments. The content of sugar was higher at heat drying and dehumidified drying treatment where drying time was relatively short than that of sun drying treatment. Also, there was no significant difference in sugar content between the two treatments. The production cost of dried hot pepper with dehumidified drying was 9.9% more efficient than heat drying. Through this study, it was found that heat and dehumidified drying method were effective in increasing sugar content and coloring of hot pepper powder. In order to improve the capsaicinoid content of red pepper, it is considered that appropriate drying temperature and drying time should be added in the process of heat drying and dehumidified drying. Additional key words : dried pepper, dehumidification drying, heat drying, pepper drying, sun drying