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- The Hot Seat:
How Hot is That "Devil" Sauce?By Marlin Bensinger
The very existence of Fiery Foods Magazine is a testament to the rapidly increasing acceptance of hot sauces and salsas in the American diet, and companies ranging from the very large to the very small are racing to fill the market's needs in this area. As with many new industries, the rush to meet demand is often accompanied with a lack of controls on the market products. One of these is the claim of pungency value that is used to differentiate hot sauces from each other. Terms like "Hot," "Medium," and "Mild" are often confusing and based on an individual's particular palate--what's hot to one person may be mild to someone else. Terms like "Devil Sauce," "Volcano Sauce," and "Blazin'Sauce," although colorful and capable of conjuring terrific mental images, often have no accurate relationship to the pungency value when trying to compare food products.
As the Fiery Foods Industry matures, it seems that the next logical step in hot sauce or salsa production is to put Scoville Heat Value ratings on the product labels, just like many foods list calories per serving and some wines list the degree of sweetness, to give the customer a workable basis of comparing heat levels. On one hand it could be argued that the addition of pungency ratings would increase the overall cost of production. On the other hand, this information could open up the market to people who have been afraid to try overly hot products--and this would mean more sales and more profits.
Until recently, only the spice/flavor companies and large food companies could afford and successfully run the traditional Scoville test for pungency evaluation. This test requires a significantly large pool of people to be trained in the pungent response procedure, and even then, only a limited number of tests can be conducted each day due to the fatiguing of the panel's palate. Small companies have neither the number of personnel available for a proper panel, nor the time and money required for training. As such, most pungency evaluations in small companies are conducted as an individual evaluation, usually by a key person in the organization, or are accepted from the raw material supplier as a matter of faith. Both sources of data are often inaccurate.
Even the traditional Scoville test, at its best, has significant variance from day to day within a single panel, and even more variance between laboratories. Geography and culture often have significant influences on the final pungency determination of a raw material or final product, due to differing perceptions of heat. Because of these variances, the spice and food industries have put a lot of money and effort into developing an instrumental method of pungency analysis. In the early 1970s, chromatographic methods of analysis were able to separate and quantify the individual capsaicinoids responsible for the heat principle in chiles. Researchers then isolated or synthesized the individual capsaicinoids and determined their respective Scoville pungencies. From that point on, the pungency contributed by capsaicinoids in fiery foods could be determined by instrumental means, which has made instrumental pungency evaluation accessible to the independent laboratories and small producers.
From a production AQ/QC standpoint, it is necessary to know what level of "heat" is being received and what "heat" level is going into the filling line. Nothing is more frustrating to a processor than to buy a hot chile, only to discover during bottling that the raw material does not meet the purchase specifications. Heat levels vary from lot to lot and supplier to supplier, but this is a natural phenomenon and must be taken into account when working in the Fiery Foods Industry. All chiles have a natural range in pungency values that are dependent on a multitude of factors which include: geography, soil type, position of the chile on the plant, maturity of the chile at the time of harvest, stress, genetics, micro-climate, sun angle, soil and air moisture levels, fertility, micro-element content of the soil, high/low air temperatures, elevation and many more. Chile quality can change from year to year, even when using the same seed in the same field. Therefore, it's a bit much to state categorically that all habanero pepper plants will produce fruit having a pungency of 300,000 Scoville Units, and it's a good idea for both buyers and sellers to get an actual assay on the heat value rather than take it for granted.
Products can be tested for pungency in two ways: in-house testing, or by sending samples to an outside lab. In-house testing is generally preferred from the standpoint of timeliness and operational control, but there is more to consider. For instance, there is the space required for a laboratory, as well as the expenses required for capital equipment, trained/dedicated personnel, utilities, and the never-ending need for miscellaneous supplies. For the small company, sending samples to an outside lab is, by necessity, cost effective. The outside lab, however, is a "generalist," which means that it's designed to handle a wide variety of sample types and is usually most proficient with the kinds of samples that it encounters most frequently. Turn around times for nonroutine samples are probably a bit slow and experience with the instrumental pungency evaluation is not the same as with an in-house lab. The best of both worlds is to find a commercial laboratory that caters to the Fiery Foods Industry and has an understanding of what goes into the making of these products from start to finish.
As the Fiery Foods Industry grows, there may come a time when uniform testing and labeling is required. Until then, however, in order to aid the purist, the gourmet, and the devoted chilehead on their quests for that "perfect" sauce (not necessarily the hottest sauce), it would be helpful to add the actual Scoville Pungency value of the sauce to the product label. A degree of product quality consistency would result from this added information with, hopefully, a corresponding amount of customer loyalty and brand identification.
Marlin Bensinger has been running CHROMTEC since 1982, providing analytical laboratory services and training to the food and spice industry, as well as consulting services for spice extraction plant design and construction. His special field of interest is in the area of chile extraction and analysis. He has co-authored many papers pertaining to pungency analysis of chiles, and is currently a consultant to the Defense Spray Manufacturers Association.
CHROMTEC
115 Lakeshore Dr., #1146
W. Palm Beach, FL 33408-3644
PH: (561) 625-8901
FAX: (561) 624-1687
