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Post Harvesting

Post Harvesting 

Canning

Canning of cherry pepper is a very preferred practice of cherry pepper preservation in Sikkim. In the process of canning, the fruits are stored in glass bottles along with salt powder after destalking. The fruits can be stored for about a year by preserving in the salt.


Sun-drying

Most of the drying of chillies is done by spreading the fruits on hard dry ground or concrete floor under sun. Mud floor, roof top or wooden cots are also used for this purpose. Chilli is highly perishable material at the time of harvest due to its high moisture content, which is usually 70-80% (wb), whereas the limit of moisture content, suitable for safe storage of chillies is about 10% (wb). Therefore, it has to be dried in a manner that it retains its characteristic red color and lusture. Excessive delay in drying results in growth of micro-flora and subsequent loss of quality or total spoilage. Also dirt and dust may deposit on the chillies during open yard sun-drying. Moreover, it involves excessive handling, irrecoverable shatter and drying mass remaining vulnerable to weather hazard. 

Red-ripe chilies

Usually, the chillies are spread in single chilli thick layer for drying. After 2 days of drying in this manner, when the fruits are still flaccid, they are trampled upon or are rolled over to flatten them. This treatment enables a greater quality of the dried product to be packed into gunny bags for storage and transport. In many parts of the country, the drying operation takes 3 to 15 days for reduction of moisture content of chilli from 70-80% to 10%, depending upon the climatic conditions. On an average, about 25 to 30% of the fresh weight of chillies is produced after successful drying by conventional methods. The manpower requirement in such drying of chillies is 2 persons for each 10 bags. On the other hand, drying under unfavorable conditions results in loss of color with white spots over the chilli surface and loss of glossiness and pungency influenced. Unripe chillies are, however, sometimes boiled and dried for domestic consumption. Chillies are often smeared with oil of mahua (Madhuca longifolia) to impart glossiness. However, coconut and gingerly oils are not used for this purpose as they lead to mould growth and discolouration. 

Cleaning, Sorting, Packaging and Storage

After drying of the fruits, they are cleaned of extraneous matter, damaged and discoloured pods etc., before its storage or packaging. Dried chillies are stored usually in gunny bag contains 25 kg of dried chillies. The storage at the farmer’s level is essentially a short-duration storage ranging from 1 to 3 months. Storage at trader’s level is also done in bags which are stacked in godowns where fumigation is done to prevent insect infestation. 

Processed Products

Primary processing of chillies essentially consists of drying and despiking, better retention of color and higher yield of finished products, avoiding breakage of pods and loss of seeds are achieved by adopting improved technology for sun-drying of chillies over traditional method. 

The improved method essentially consists of dipping fresh chillies in ‘Dipsol’ for 5 minutes and then drying on racks having multitier-wire net trays.

Dehydrated Green Chillies

There are reports on standard conditions and pretreatments required to produce best quality dehydrated green chillies. 

Dried chillies generally contain about 6% stalks, 40% pericarp and 54% seeds. Important constituents of color and capsaicin are concentrated in pericarp. About 90% of the capsaicin in chillies has been noticed in placenta, connecting seeds with pericarp. Placenta which represents only less than 4% of total weight has a capsaicin content of about 7%.

Drying Yield of Chillies
Aiyer (1944) has reported an average yield of dried chillies of a rainfed crop in India as 280 kg per hectare, although a good crop may amount to 3 times this quantity or more. The average yield from an irrigated crop is about 1,650 kg per hectare, increasing in a good crop to 2,800 kg/ha. 


COMPARATIVE DATA ON DRYING YIELD OF DIFFERENT TYPESOF CHILLIES 
 

Items Indian Chilli Tobasco Bird
Yield of dry fruits (kg/ha) 4,486 5,663 5,549
Percentage conversion wet to dry 25 32 37
Number of dry chillies per kg 1,617 6,718 21,385
Picking time for fresh fruits (kg/hr) 3.6 0.6 0.15
Mean length of fruits (cm) 7.0 3.0 1.3


The dried forms of fruits of Capsicum species which are of trade fall into 3 groups:

(i) highly pungent ‘chillies’, 
(ii) moderately to mildly pungent ‘capsicum’ and 
(iii) ‘paprika’ which may be sweet to mildly pungent. 

Paprika is always ground product, and chillies and capsicums are in trade in whole or ground form. All 3 types are also extracted with solvents to prepare their oleoresins; blends of ground chillies and capsicums are marketed as cayenne and red pepper or mixed with other spices for the preparation of ‘chilli powder’. Related products include larger-fruited, sweet or mildly pungent varieties of C. annuum used in fresh state as vegetables or in preserves.

Quality Requirements for Processing
In capsicums and chillies which are used in food preparations, quality is of much importance, and is based on good pungency level, bright red color, good flavor, medium-sized with moderately thin pericarp, smooth glossy surface, few seeds in fruit and firm stalk. 

Medium sized fruits are preferred to long pods because in storage they remain intact better than longer pods, which tend to break at distal end. A fairly thin pericarp is necessary as drying can be more easily accomplished in it. On drying, fruits with thick pericarps show wrinkled surface and dull appearance. Chillies and capsicums with bright red color command higher price than those which are dull red or even orange or yellow in color, deep red fruits tend to retain their color in storage longer than those which are of lighter color.

In pungent chillies which are to be used for the preparation of capsicum oleoresin, the appearance is of much less importance, but high capsaicin content is essential. The specie, cultivar or strain grown has dominant influence on import quality-determinant properties of pungency, initial colour and color retention. Harvesting, drying and handling methods used for chillies and capsicums are also significant and influence quality characteristics.