Pepper is a tropical spice crop that likes high temperatures and high humidity. It is planted in Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Africa in Southeast Asia. The picking period can last for about 50 days. The whole plant can be picked repeatedly. It is an economy crop with a good yield. Pepper is used to making black pepper and white pepper. This article will share the steps and essentials of using a heat pump dryer to dry black pepper and white pepper.
Black pepper and white pepper come from the same pepper plant, but the harvesting and production processes are different. When the pepper fruit grows up, pick the green peppers that are not fully ripe, which can be used as the raw material for drying black pepper; the raw material for white pepper is the pepper whose color of the fruit on the pepper spike has changed from green to yellow or red fruit.
Tools/Materials：
- Fresh pepper
- Pepper drying system (pepper dryer machine, insulated and enclosed drying room, hot air circulation system, PLC control panel, automatic dehumidification system)
- Drying trolleys and trays
Method/Step:
- The production process of white pepper is more complicated than that of black pepper, and it must undergo soaking and peeling treatments. Picked ripe pepper ears should first be soaked in running water for about 10 days or even longer until the flesh is rotten. Then, rinsed vigorously or with auxiliary tools to remove the pepper, flesh, stems, and other impurities. Use running water to soak, mainly to keep the white pepper white and fragrance after drying. The peeling process is essential. At present, there are mechanical peeling methods, microbiological methods, enzymatic methods, and so on.
- The purpose of white pepper drying is to make the white pepper’s moisture content dry from 40-60% to 12%. Although the higher the temperature, the faster the pepper is dried, to achieve the uniformity of the volatile oil characteristics and drying efficiency of the pepper, a medium-low temperature of 50-55℃ is appropriate, and one batch can be dried in about 10 hours, which is equivalent to use Sun exposure for 5 days. Use the dryer to dry fully and evenly, and its warranty storage period is longer. After the pepper is dried, the impurities are removed and then vacuum packaged and stored.
Airtek Topline Food Drying Machines
Here is some Airtek of the heat pump Food Drying Machine. Highly efficient and automated drying system that can expedite your work and drying time.
