PAPRIKA COLOR QUALITY - EFFECT OF AIR AND NATURAL DRYING TREATMENTS

Color, browning compounds formation and total carotenoids as indicator of paprika quality were investigated under air and natural drying pro cesses. The data resulted from air drying experiments showed an invers ely relationship between the progress in temperature (40, 60 and 80 de grees C) and the paprika quality. In natural dried samples, three diff erent treatments were carried out (sun, dark drying and blanching + su n drying). The data revealed an irregular pattern characterized by two stages: 1 st one is biosynthetic and the second is degradative with m ore profound effect in light more than darkness. Multilinear regressio n data analysis was also employed to simulate the results especially t he changes in total carotenoids as a function of time. Sensory evaluat ion for color of the samples indicated a large variation in responses of panelists. Low temperature treatment was recommended to favour the quality of paprika if the rate of forming browning compounds is reduce d.