Within the genus Capsicum, the species Capsicum annuum L. cultivars possess a range of pod shapes and colors complemented by varying degrees seed content, skin thickness, and flavor intensity. Each cultivar has a “heat” or pungency that ranges from mild to hot. The pungent active ingredient found in peppers is the aromatic phenol capsaicin, which is produced by oil secreting glands located along the placenta. Thus, pepper varieties having smaller placenta content typically are milder in flavor.
The commercial value of chile peppers lies in the recovery of the flesh (which excludes seeds, skin, and placenta) and is the raw material for several chile-pepper consumer products, and in the seeds, which are sold to agricultural producers of the fruit. Thus, the commercial processing of chile peppers necessarily involves the separation of flesh and seeds from the rest of the fruit (skin and placenta) and from other materials (such as the stem and calyx) that may be collected during harvesting of the pepper.
Attempts have been made to harvest peppers by machine and then to separate the flesh and seeds from the rest of the fruit using flotation and/or pneumatic equipment, but these experiments have not been consistently successful. Moreover, commercial peeling operations often rely on roasting and/or steam to separate the skin from the cell wall of the fruit. Due to the thickness of the skin, processing of typical Anaheim-type chile cultivars results in a flesh recovery of about 70% by weight of each pepper fruit. Moreover, the processing of Anaheim-type chile peppers (and other varieties) often is time, labor, and/or resource intensive due to the amount of energy used to roast or steam peel.
Thus, it would be desirable for a solution to the problem associated with the high cost of processing chile peppers due to excessive skin thickness and to improve the flesh recovery percentage associated with processing.