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“Hunan people are not afraid of spicy food, Guizhou people are not afraid of spicy food, and Sichuan people are not afraid of spicy food.” This sentence vividly illustrates Hunan people’s love for chili peppers and the importance of chili peppers in Hunan people’s lives. Hunan's annual local pepper production is nearly 400,000 tons, but more than 300,000 tons of off-season peppers are purchased from other places every year, and the per capita annual consumption of peppers reaches more than 10 kilograms. "Although Hunan has a market, consumption habits, and a unique pepper culture, and has a large planting area of ??peppers, the level of deep processing of pepper products is relatively backward, and there are almost no well-known brands outside the province." Changsha Tan Tan Xiang Peng Fengxiang, general manager of the Seasoning Food Co., Ltd., looked helpless when being interviewed by reporters.

A few days ago, the project application for "Fermented Healthy Chili Product Processing Technology" submitted by the School of Food Science and Technology of Hunan Agricultural University was officially approved by the Ministry of Agriculture. Relevant experts believe that this is a rare opportunity to increase the scientific and technological content of Hunan pepper products, improve the economic benefits of Hunan pepper products, and promote the industrialization process of Hunan peppers. So, as a specialty product with a solid foundation, how can Hunan pepper be industrialized? In this regard, the reporter interviewed Professor Xia Yanbin, dean of the School of Food Science and Technology of Hunan Agricultural University.

Dean Xia Yanbin believes that the time is ripe for the industrialization of Hunan pepper. He said that Hunan's pepper production now accounts for about 5% of the country's total, while its consumption accounts for 10% of the country's total. my country's traditional pepper producing areas include "Three Capitals" (Wangdu, Yidu, Chengdu) and "Liangqing" (Chongqing, Baoqing), and Baoqing of the two Qings is in Shaoyang, Hunan. Especially in the past ten years, Hunan has cultivated more than 200 new varieties with local characteristics, which not only guarantees the output of raw materials, has a variety of choices, but also has strong market demand. With these conditions, the process of pepper industrialization has reached the stage of success.

At present, Hunan already has a number of pepper product processing enterprises with certain strength and characteristics. For example, La Meizi, Yitong Shanhe, Huayue Laoganma, etc. have sales outlets across the country and have good brand image and market influence. Hunan Lameizi Food Co., Ltd. has established a pepper raw material base of 1,000 acres and established targeted acquisition relationships with 15,000 farmers. Changsha Tantanxiang Seasoning Food Co., Ltd., an enterprise run by Hunan Agricultural University, relied on the technology of the School of Food Science and Technology of Agricultural University to expand its sales network to more than ten provinces and cities across the country in just one year.

In terms of special pepper products, Changsha Lekoufu Food Co., Ltd., located in the western mountainous area of ????Ningxiang, has launched pollution-free seven-star peppers grown in Weishan, a mountainous area with an altitude of more than 1,000 meters, a Buddhist tourist resort. The "Da Shi Monk" series of vegetarian products, which mainly include hot sauce and chili radish, were favored by domestic and foreign merchants at last year's Hunan International Agricultural Expo.

Dean Xia Yanbin told reporters that although the conditions for the industrialization of peppers in Hunan are already in place, there are still several technical issues that need to be resolved in order to truly implement the industrialization of peppers.

First, the issue of standardization. That is product standardization and standard internationalization. Like many traditional agricultural and sideline products in my country, pepper products in Hunan Province have always been extensively produced and processed, and operators do not even pay attention to the trademarks and instructions on the packaging. For example, chili sauce is the most common chili product on the market. Its raw materials often only indicate that it is chili pepper, but it is difficult for consumers to know what kind and how spicy it is. The Scoville method, a method for grading the spiciness of peppers, has long been introduced internationally, which is to judge the spiciness of peppers based on the amount of capsaicin contained in them. People can easily judge which flavor of pepper products is suitable for them; and standardized, Standardized products are also easier to enter foreign markets. The "Processing Technology of Fermented Healthy Chili Products" that Dean Xia is responsible for this time will focus on research in this area to make the spiciness of chili peppers easy to control.

Secondly, we must continue to increase the technical content of chili products. Dean Xia Yanbin believes that it is difficult to increase the market share of Hunan chili products now, mainly because chili products such as hot sauce have low technical content and are easy to be imitated. Counterfeiting is rampant, which affects the industrialization process. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen research on the processing technology of pepper products to make our products have distinctive characteristics, so that they can have brand appeal. It is understood that many domestic fermented chili products currently use natural fermentation, which not only takes a long time, but also has unstable product quality.

Hunan Agricultural University is conducting research on using pure bacterial strains for fermentation, and is trying to apply the developed pure strains to pepper processing to further ensure the quality of pepper products. Dean Xia told reporters that after completing the new chili project, they will develop a chili sauce product that is essentially equivalent to soy sauce. The flavor, quality, and efficacy of its active ingredients will be fundamentally improved. .

General Manager Peng Fengxiang of Changsha Tantanxiang Seasoning Food Co., Ltd. believes that since most areas in Hunan are not suitable for growing processed peppers and are only suitable for growing fresh peppers, good quality peppers can be purchased from other provinces. , processed peppers with appropriate prices. There is no need to build a base in Hunan. Focus on investment in new product research and development and expansion of processing scale. Through capital operation and brand building, cultivate two to three large-scale pepper processing enterprises, which can also realize the production of peppers. the purpose of industrialization.