Processing of White Pepper – Retting Method – Drying – Quality of White Pepper

D.Sudhakar Raj,

2014015061

White pepper / Pepper corn

• Family Piperaceae• Genus Piper• Spices Piper nigrum King of Spices

Cultivation of Pepper• Pepper is grown in soil that is not very dry, but not also very dampened,

although it needs proper moisture to grow well. • Propagating the plant requires cutting 40 cm of the vine, and tying this to

a frame or tree. • The roots of a pepper plant feeds on manure and mulch and it should be

trimmed every six months. • On its fifth year, a plant will then bear fruit and will do so for a period of

seven years.• Each stem from the vine will yield about thirty fruiting.• When the fruit turns red, it is an indication that it is ready for harvest. • For white pepper, the fruits are allowed to mature even further.

Specification• Colour light yellow greyish • Shape nearly globular • Diameter around 5mm or less• Smooth• Striated with small protuberance at the base.

White Pepper Made From

• White pepper is obtained by removing the outer skin, namely pericarp and outer portion of the mesocarp of the ripe or matured green berries or dried black pepper.

How it is produced?• Bold black pepper is size graded by passing in sieves of 3-6 mm dia.• It is then subjected to density grading by using salt solutions of 5-20%.• These berries are conditioned by soaking in water overnight and holding

the drained berries in cold (0 -10°C) for a period of up to 48 hours.• Berries are stirred up under vacuum to facilitate Loosening of skin surface abrasion protease

enzyme treatment with cell wall degrading enzymes • Aqueous enzyme solution is added to the berries and pH is adjusted by

using permitted citric acid.

• These berries are passed through pulper / worked manually under a flow of water to obtain the de-skinned berries.

• The berries are kept immersed in an acidic aqueous solution/chlorinated water which improve the color of the white pepper.

• The berries are dried mechanically at a temperature of 40-60° C for about six hours to reduce the moisture to 8-10%.

• Alternatively, sun drying of the berries can be practiced if weather conditions are favourable.

• The dried white pepper is subjected to cleaning and grading to separate shriveled and undersized berries,

if any, and obtain superior grade white pepper.

Different methods used for white pepper preparation

Retting method• The sample was kept in still water and allowed to soak in water for ten days.• The water in the container was changed every alternate day. • After ten days the water was drained out and the berries were rolled to remove

the outer pericarp.

Steaming/boiling and rolling

• The pepper was boiled or steam cooked for 13 minutes and cooled and rolled in running water to remove the outer skin.

Running water treatment

• The despiked green pepper was filled in gunny bag and kept under running water for 24 hrs and later the outer skin was removed.

• Decorticated pepper from the above treatment was sun dried to a final moisture level of 12%.

Improved CFTRI method

• Fully mature but unripe berries are harvested and boiled in water for 10-15 minutes to soften the pericarp.

• After cooling, the skin is rubbed off either mechanically or manually, washed and sun dried to obtain white pepper.

• Since no retting operation is involved, the product will be free from any unpleasant odour.

• However, white pepper produced by this method gives pepper powder of light brown colour due to gelatinisation of starch in contrast to pure white powder obtained by traditional method.

Cleaning and Drying• The loosened and partially degraded skin is removed with the

help of a fruit pulping machine and water washing. • The decorticated pepper is sun dried or in a hot air drier

adjusted at 45 0C to brings down the moisture content <15% in pepper.

After the Producing process

White pepper is • garbled,• sorted and • packed in gunny bags.

• Approximately 25 kg white pepper is obtained from 100 kg ripe berries.

UsesIn Food• Grounded white pepper is very popular with Southeast Asians. They would heavily sprinkle white peppers on meat produce before they

are grilled, fried or broiled. • To a great extent, white pepper is sprinkled on food to preserve the

appearance.• Since black pepper cannot be hidden and blended with, for instance,

white sauce, it would be best to use white pepper for dishes like these.

Medicinal Uses• Pepper stimulates our body's gastric juice which is very important for

proper digestion. • It is also used as an alternative medicine which helps improve

flatulence and intestinal upsets.• In some cases, it relieves nausea and may even help reduce fever and

chills. • White pepper has been used in traditional medicinal systems including

Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani systems.• It is used as an essential oil in aromatherapy and other methods.

• White pepper generally fetches 50% more price than that of black pepper.

• Oil can also be distilled from white pepper but high price of white pepper and low oil yield do not favour its commercial production.

• Pepper oleoresin: One kg of oleoresin when dispersed on an inert base can replace 15 to 20 kg of spice for flavouring purpose.

Quality of White pepper

• There is no significant difference in quality of white and black pepper except for a slight reduction of volatile oil in the former due to the removal of skin.

In Tamil Nadu• To boost pepper cultivation in Tamil Nadu, the Spices Board has proposed

to the State Horticulture Mission a project to increase the area under the crop.

• While the total area under cultivation now is 9,300 acres, the proposal aims at touching 9,900 acres over the next four years.

In IndiaPepper is producing in• Maharashtra• Goa• Madhya Pradesh• Andhra Pradesh• West Bengal• Orissa• Assam• Tripura• Meghalaya• Arunachal Pradesh• Mizoram• Nagaland• Manipur• Pondicherry• Andaman and Nicobar Islands

Kerala is the leading pepper producing state in India.

• Annual white pepper contribution in India is less than 250 metric tones against the world demand of more than 1,50,000 metric tones.

• Indonesia is the largest white pepper producing country, converts about 50 % of its pepper to white.

• Malaysia and Brazil convert about 10 % and 5% of their pepper to white respectively.

Thank You