Pungency of hot pepper has limited its usage even though it shows various health beneficial effects. This study was conducted to develop the novel yoghurt containing hot pepper with diminishing pungency and aimed to examine the quality characteristics of yoghurt prepared with fermented red pepper. Hot pepper was first fermented with Bacillus licheniformis SK1230 to reduce the pungency of capsaicin. We then examined the quality, sensory characteristics, and antioxidant activity of yoghurt containing the fermented red pepper. The titratable acidity of this yoghurt increased whereas the viscosity decreased with increasing amounts of added red pepper. The total polyphenol content increased in proportion to the amount of added red pepper. The antioxidant activity significantly increased with the addition of red pepper (p<0.05). Color evaluation showed that the L value decreased whereas the a and b values increased significantly with the amount of red pepper added (p<0.05). In the sensory evaluation, yoghurt prepared with higher amounts of fermented red pepper received lower scores. However, yoghurt containing fermented red pepper at a concentration of 0.05% received higher scores for taste, flavor, and overall acceptability than yoghurt prepared with non-fermented pepper. Therefore, it can be concluded that the application of red pepper fermented by Bacillus licheniformis SK1230 gives beneficial feature to the preparation of yoghurt.

Capsaicin, an active component of hot pepper, has considerable health benefits; however, the pungency of hot pepper has limited its usage. This study aimed to reduce the pungency of hot pepper by fermentation to enhance its application in the food industry. Hot pepper juice was fermented by Bacillus licheniformis SK1230, which was previously isolated as a capsaicin-degrading bacterium. B. licheniformis SK1230 was inoculated into the juice of red or green pepper, and the mixture was then fermented for 19 days to determine the degradation level of capsaicinoids. It was observed that with a gradual increase in pH, the growth of B. licheniformis SK1230 increased to 1.0 9 10 9 CFU/mL after day 1, and its viability persisted until the end of fermentation. The sugar content of green pepper drastically reduced at day 1 and that of red pepper reduced at day 5. The total polyphenol content of the medium containing red pepper was about 2-fold higher than that of the medium containing green pepper. The antioxidant activity of the medium containing red pepper was also higher than that of the medium containing green pepper; however, the activity gradually decreased during the course of the fermentation period. The capsaicinoid content of both types of peppers radically decreased at day 5. Thus, we suggest that a fermentation period of 5 days would be optimal for the degradation of capsaicin with minimal loss of antioxidant activity and would provide higher polyphenol content.