Nutritive and Quality Traits of Colored Sweet Mini-peppers

Attractively packaged multicolored sweet mini-peppers have emerged as novel products in the U.S. produce market.  The objective of this research is to evaluate nutritive and fruit quality traits of consumer value in colored sweet mini-peppers. Fruit color parameters were measured by a Minolta color meter and pericarp thickness and Brix of pericarp extracts were collected from fresh fruits sold by Pero’s family farm LLC, Florida.  Carotenoid profiles of acetone extracts of pepper pericarp were evaluated using HPLC fitted with a C-18 reverse phase column and a multi-wavelength detector.    The results will be discussed with reference to relationships between color parameters to antioxidant value and the ratios between nutritive and non-nutritive carotenoids.