Welcome to UCHU, where crafting hot pepper products is more than our business—it's our passion. As a leader in the spice industry, we specialize in delivering unique hot pepper solutions. Our mission is to help food manufacturers, culinary professionals, and brands achieve distinction through the peppers' flavor.

At the core of UCHU, we strike a balance between the art and science of spice creation. Our team, led by Andrea, specializes in tailoring the unique attributes of capsicums—such as color, heat level, and texture—to fit your specific needs. Here's how we do it:

• Understanding Your Needs: We start by comprehensively understanding your flavor goals.

• Selecting the Right Varieties: Our experience with different capsicum varieties allows us to match your desired flavor profile. If you require a blend to be made, that is available as well.

• Adapting to Variability: We navigate the natural diversity of hot peppers to ensure consistency in your products.

Our innovation is grounded in an understanding that nature, which plays a crucial role in the quality of our raw materials, is changing. Depending on the time of the year, a pepper's water content, flavor, and taste might change. We can adapt to the nuances of the peppers, blending different batches to achieve consistent characteristics. This allows us to provide preservative and additive-free products that still fit the client's need for consistency.

Quality is at the heart of everything we do at UCHU. From the selection of chili peppers to the final product analysis, our process ensures excellence:

• Field Selection: We meticulously select the finest chili peppers, focusing on color and quality.

• Process Selection: Depending on the desired final product or use, we can decide how a pepper is processed. Is the funky aroma of fermented pepper desired? Should we go with a salt-free acidified mash? Or maybe a mix of both products.

• Advanced Processing: At our state-of-the-art facility, each batch undergoes thorough safety and quality assessments.

• Quality Assessments: We conduct detailed sensory analysis and physicochemical testing (analyzing the physical and chemical properties) to ensure our products meet high standards.

Deep Dive into Our Quality Assessments After blending, samples are tested in a quality lab to ensure they meet the required specifications.

For Dehydrated Products:

• Physicochemical Factors: Tests include moisture percentage, water activity, and sometimes particle size. A special device provides water activity results in under 3 minutes, which is crucial for safety. Products with water activity under 0.6 have an extended shelf life due to lower microbial growth risk.

• Microbiological Factors: In-house lab testing ensures process line safety.

• Sensory Factors: Color, aroma, and texture are evaluated by a sensory panel according to customer requirements.

For Mash Line Products:

• Physicochemical Factors: Tests may include salt content, acidity, pH, and consistency, especially for fermented products, which have specific ranges developed through internal controls and studies.

• Microbiological Factors: In-house lab testing for molds and yeasts is critical for assessing fermentation status and deciding on sample release.

• Sensory Factors: Color, aroma, and texture are evaluated by a sensory panel as per customer specifications.

This summarized process focuses on ensuring the safety, quality, and customer-specific requirements of the products through rigorous testing and evaluation in a controlled laboratory environment.

Let us help you make your culinary visions come to life with our bespoke hot pepper solutions. Contact UCHU today to explore how our unmatched spice expertise can elevate your products and distinguish them in the competitive culinary landscape.

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