SOP: Light Berries and Extraneous Matter in Pepper

GIFSQ — Global Institute for Food Safety & Quality

Principle

Extraneous matter in pepper is separated by sifting through a perforated sieve of defined hole size; the sieved material is then hand picked for foreign organic and inorganic matter. Light (immature) berries are separated by floatation in an alcohol–water solution of defined specific gravity, dried and weighed, giving their percentage by weight.

Apparatus required

• Sieve, 18–22 inch in diameter and 2.75 inch in height, with a bottom sheet having round holes of 7/64 inch diameter and 5% holes per linear inch
• Sieve shaker, vibratory or reciprocating type

Reagents

a. Alcohol–water solution, 0.80–0.82 specific gravity (92.07–96.26% v/v) at 25/25 °C.

Procedure

Extraneous matter by sifting:

Weigh 2 samples of 1 kg each and sift separately

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Combine the siftings, weigh accurately and calculate the extraneous matter by sifting

Extraneous matter by hand picking:

Combine the sieved samples and spread on a sheet of paper

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Divide into small portions and pick the foreign organic and inorganic matter, noting its nature

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Calculate the hand-picked matter as a percentage of the weight of sample

Light berries:

Use the pepper sample after sifting and removal of extraneous matter by hand picking

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Divide into four equal portions (A, B, C, D); set aside A and C

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Reduce B and D separately to approximately 50 g portions; weigh 50 ± 0.1 g from each quarter and transfer to a 500 ml beaker

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Add 300 ml of alcohol–water solution, stir the material with a spoon and allow to settle for 2 min

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Remove the berries which actually float with the help of a spoon and transfer to a blotting paper — do not count berries which remain suspended some distance below the surface of the liquid as floaters

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Repeat the stirring, settling and removal of the floaters until two successive stirrings raise no more berries to the surface

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Blot the berries so removed, air dry for 1 hr and weigh to the nearest 0.01 g

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The values from the two quarters should not vary more than 0.8% — average the values for reporting; if the variation is more, repeat the determination using either the A or C quarter and average the three values for reporting

Calculation

% Extraneous matter by sifting = (Wt of combined sifting × 100) / Correct weight of the two samples

% Extraneous hand-picked matter = (Wt of hand-picked matter × 100) / Wt of sample

% Light berries = (Wt of light berries × 100) / Wt of sample

Where,

• Wt of combined sifting = weight of the material passing through the sieve from both 1 kg samples
• Correct weight of the two samples = corrected total weight of the two 1 kg samples taken
• Wt of hand-picked matter = weight of the foreign organic and inorganic matter picked by hand
• Wt of light berries = weight of the floaters removed, blotted and air dried for 1 hr
• Wt of sample = weight of the sample taken for the respective determination

References

Ranganna, S., Handbook of Analysis and Quality Control for Fruit and Vegetable Products, 2nd edition.

Official Analytical Methods, American Spice Trade Association, Inc., 580, Sylvan Avenue, P.O. Box 1267, Englewood Cliffs, N.J. 07632, 2nd edn., p. 29, 1968.