Abstract

AVILA-QUEZADA, Graciela D.; ISLAS-VALENZUELA, Cinthia I.; MUNOZ-MARQUEZ, Ezequiel  and  SANCHEZ-CHAVEZ, Esteban. Physical and microbiological contamination of the smoked "chipotle" pepper during dehydration. Rev. fitotec. mex [online]. 2009, vol.32, n.3, pp.225-231. ISSN 0187-7380.

One marketing alternative for 'Jalapeño' pepper (Capsicum annum L.) is the smoked and dried processing whose product is known in México as "Chipotle". Smoking is a common technique of food preservation that provides a special aroma and flavor, and is traditionally carried out in a field open-oven, so that fecal and physical contamination carried by the wind is possible. In this work the microbiological quality of "Chipotle" was determined in the production chain: smoking and dehydration, according to treatments for good manufacturing practices (GMP) in this process. The treatments to minimize the risk of contamination during the process were: 1. Placing a mesh hail (mesh-shade) over the drying oven; 2. Restricting direct contact of the worker with the chile pepper; and 3. Sanitizing working tools. With these simple GMP fruit quality and absence of physical contamination of "Chipotle" were attained. When not all GMP-related activities were implemented, contamination of the "Chipotle" with fecal coliforms reached values up to 210 MPN/g in the "Chipotle" fruits.

Keywords : Capsicum annum; manufacturing practices; food safety.

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