Consumer Perception on the Redness and Off Flavor Upon Stored Red Chili Paste with Ozone Treatment

Abstract

Since red chili has a high moisture content and a rapid respiration rate, it is regarded as a perishable item. The redness and scent of the chili can be used to detect a quality decline during storage. It has long been common practice to employ ozone to prevent horticultural products from degrading. The purpose of this study is to ascertain the impact of ozone pretreatment on the redness and scent of chili paste during storage as a quality indicator of customer perception level. Red chilies were treated by soaking in ozonated water for 15 minutes using an ozone generator, as opposed to the control treatment, which used only pure water. Samples were kept for seven days, and each day the redness and scent were evaluated. Data were obtained by calculating the average and standard deviation, then presented in a graph with error bars. The results showed that the redness value of control and ozone treatment started from 51.55 and 46.04 and on the seventh day became 42.94 and 43.81. The control treatment showed off-flavor on the third day of storage while the ozone treatment did not show off-flavor until seventh day of storage. In conclusion, ozone treatment slowed down the decrease of red chili paste’s redness value and off-flavor.