DRIED HOT PEPPER PRODUCTION METHOD Russian patent published in 2014 - IPC A23L1/10 

FIELD: food industry.

SUBSTANCE: dried hot pepper production method involves raw material inspection, sorting, washing, cutting and subjecting to combined UHF-convective drying. Combined UHF-convective drying is performed by way of exposing the product to a UHF electromagnetic field with a frequency equal to 2450 MHz and with convective blowing with air having temperature equal to 293 K in three temporal stages. At the first stage hot pepper cut into 3 mm thick rings is heated with UHF-waves till the temperature is equal to 310 K with simultaneous blowing at an air flow rate equal to 1.6 m/s during 5 minutes. At the second stage heating is performed with UHF-waves till the temperature is equal to 318 K at an air flow rate equal to 0.9 m/s during 15 minutes. At the third stage heating is performed with UHF-waves till the temperature is equal to 325 K at an air flow rate equal to 0.6 m/s during 33 minutes. During the whole third stage heating is performed in a pulse mode: with UHF-waves till the temperature is equal to 325 K during 7.5 minutes; then blowing with air is performed during 1 minute at a rate of 0.6 m/s.

EFFECT: method allows to produce high quality hot pepper due to preservation of valuable thermolabile substances, enhance the process heat efficiency, reduce energy- and labour expenditures on dried hot pepper production due to usage of staged modes of combined UHF-convective drying.

1 tbl, 1 dwg, 1 ex