Levels of Hotness

The Korea Times

The Korea Times

Business

Wed, November 29, 2023 | 04:24

Manufacturing

Levels of Hotness

Posted : 2010-04-01 21:30

Updated : 2010-04-01 21:30

Buyers of Korean chili sauce (gochujang) will have a wider choice of flavor from next month as its makers are set to release their products in diversified levels of spiciness.

The government plans to allow consumers to know how hot their “gochujang” (red pepper paste) is before they actually taste it.

/ Korea Times Photo
by Shim Hyun-chul

'Gochujang' to Be Labeled by Degrees of Spiciness

By Kim Hyun-cheol
Staff Reporter

Buyers of Korean chili sauce (gochujang) will have a wider choice of flavor from next month as its makers are set to release their products in diversified levels of spiciness.

The government and local gochujang makers have recently reached an agreement on the standardization of the condiment, the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said Thursday.

This is aimed at boosting the popularity of traditional Korean food worldwide by making it easier for consumers to choose products based on spice rather than brand, the ministry added.

``All of the nine major companies agreed to the plan,'' a ministry official said. ``A public notice on the new labeling system will be made next month, following a customer survey.''

In the proposed plan, a new unified unit ― the Gochujang Hot Taste Unit (GHU) ― will be introduced to measure the degree of spiciness. Set by the amount of capsaicin, the component in chili peppers responsible for the spicy taste, the GHU will be categorized into five levels.

Labels on gochujang will be varied from ``mildly hot,'' ``slightly hot,'' ``medium hot,'' ``very hot'' and ``extremely hot,'' according to their GHU value. A mercury-like indicator will be used together with the scale to offer customers information of the flavor in a more visible way.

Two leading food companies here, Daesang and CJ, are already labeling their own levels of spiciness on their packaged gochujang products, but they said they are likely to abide by the government standard as well.

Daesang and CJ have been in disaccord in the way of scaling piquancy. While Daesang currently uses a part-per-million (PPM) notation for capsaicin, CJ applies the Scoville scale on their products.

``Now that a standard has been set by the government, it will be more convenient for us to follow that in exporting our products,'' a Daesang spokeswoman said.

The government plans to take further measures to promote hot and spicy flavored Korean food. It will apply the same scale to kimchi, a representative Korean dish of pickled vegetables, as well as products of chili powder, one of the core ingredients in Korean cuisine, the ministry said.

hckim@koreatimes.co.kr