Investigation of colour agent content of paprika powders with added oleoresin

Abstract The paprika oleoresin, that is an oil soluble extract from the fruits of Capsicum Annum Linn or Capsicum Frutescens, is used often to raise the colour agent content of paprika powders. We investigated how the colour agent content of paprika powder samples with added oleoresin change in the course of storage. The colour agent content of 7 different quality powders was increased with 7-75% using two types of oleoresin. The initial colour agent content of the samples changed between 41 and 169 ASTA units. The powders were made from Chinese, Peruvian and Hungarian paprika. The colour agent content of the samples was measured throughout 10 months. The measured values were analysed using ANOVA. The decrease of colour agent content varied between 22 and 51 percent, while the average reduction was 33 percent. The initial colour agent content of the paprika powder samples did not influence the colour agent content decrease significantly. The effect of the quantity of added oleoresin did not influence either the colour agent content decrease significantly. The decrease of the colour agent content of the Hungarian paprika samples significantly differs from the Chinese and Peruvian paprika samples colour agent content decrease.