Characteristics and Process Optimization of Hot-air Drying Pepper

In order to solve the drying problems in the deep-processing of pepper, peppers were dried through blanching pre-treatment and hot-air drying process. Orthogonal test designs were carried out to investigate factors influencing the quality and moisture content of pepper. The results showed that the whole drying process was a reduction speed drying, hot-air temperature and wind speed have significantly affected on the drying rate of pepper, but the impact of hot-air temperature was more prominent than wind speed; hot-air temperature was found to be the primary parameter to affect the quality of the pepper, wind speed was the secondary one and followed by packing thickness; drying time was found to be the primary parameter to affect the moisture content of the pepper in the drying process, the best drying conditions were as follows: wind temperature was 80 degrees C, wind speed was 10 m/s, packing thickness was 80 cm, drying time was 12 h after 100 degrees C steam blanching pre-treatment.