The traditional Spanish paprika processing in the Murcia Region and possible innovations

The traditional method of Spanish paprika processing in the Murcia Region is under the official category Denomination of Origin “Paprika of Murcia”. The process consists basically in manual harvesting the fruit in full ripe stage, drying, removing the peduncle and seeds, hammer and stone milling for crushing and grinding, transmission, mixing and granulating, sterilization, packaging and refrigerated storage. The details about the paprika processing operations are reported. In a second part the main control points of paprika processing, paprika quality traits and risks are also mentioned. The innovations proposed for paprika processing and unit operations in the literature include application of hygienic food processing design, paprika processing in a nitrogen flow, heat pretreatments before grinding or applied to shredded pepper, high hydrostatic pressure or high intensity electrical field pulse, irradiation, osmotic dehydration, lyophilization, mixing and coating, and modified atmosphere packaging. The traditional method of Spanish paprika processing in the Murcia Region is under the official category Denomination of Origin “Paprika of Murcia”. The process consists basically in manual harvesting the fruit in full ripe  stage, drying, removing the peduncle and seeds, hammer and stone milling for crushing and grinding, transmission, mixing and granulating, sterilization, packaging and refrigerated storage. The details about the paprika processing operations are reported. In a second part the main control points of paprika processing, paprika quality traits and risks are also mentioned. The innovations proposed for paprika processing and unit operations in the literature include application of hygienic food processing design, paprika processing in a nitrogen flow, heat pretreatments before grinding or applied to shredded pepper, high hydrostatic pressure or high intensity electrical field pulse, irradiation, osmotic dehydration, lyophilization, mixing and coating, and modified atmosphere packaging.