Introduction

Indian black pepper, a highly valued spice in the international market often suffers from the drawback of having high microbial loads and spores of certain bacteria apart from other extraneous materials. The process for sterilization of whole black pepper is a potential process and would help the Indian Spice exporters to achieve a competitive edge other their counterparts from other pepper growing country.

Process

The sterilization is achieved by thermal treatment using steam and High temperature Short Time (HTST) process in bringing down the microbial count to a commercially acceptable level.

Market Potential

India is a major producer and exporter of black pepper. During 1995-96, India produced 61,000 tonnes of black pepper and exported 26,346 tonnes realizing about Rs.200 crores in foreign exchange. Indonesia, malaysia, Vietnam, brazil, Sri lanka, Thailand, China and Madagascar the other countries, which produce black pepper.

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