건조방법에 따른 고춧가루의 품질특성

Red pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) powder is widely used as a spice and flavor ingredient in the food industry. It is well known that during the drying process red pepper undergoes physico-chemical and nutritional changes. The objective of this study was to investigate the quality of red pepper powder according to drying method. Red pepper was dried by far-infrared drying, hot air drying, and polyethylene (PE) house drying. Average moisture content of dried red pepper powder from the three different drying methods was 12.5±0.3%. The pH level slightly increased from 4.93 before drying to 5.00∼5.54 after drying. Contents of capsaicinoids were highest (224.40 mg/100 g) in the PE house drying method and lowest (191.87 mg/100 g) in the hot air drying (70oC) method. However, capsaicinoid contents were not significantly different among the various drying methods. Vitamin C content decreased as temperature increased. Drying conditions, particularly temperature, lead to loss of vitamin C in red pepper, resulting in quality degradation. Taken together, these results demonstrate that the content of vitamin C, one of the major factors affecting pepper powder quality, was affected by drying temperature.