Studies on the Physicochemical Characteristics of Sunchang Traditional Kochujang

순창전통고추장의 물리화학적 특성에 관한 연구

This study was conducted to investigate the physicochemical characteristics of Sunchang traditional kochujang(fermented hot pepper-soy bean paste) for quality standardization. The kochujang samples, which have been fermented for 8 months in 1999, were collected from 20 firms at folk village in Sunchang area and analyzed their chemical compositions and color reference. The mean value of moisture, amino-type nitrogen, pH, acidity and salt content of the samples collected were $44.62{\pm}1.79%$, $132.66{\pm}21.67\;mg%$, $4.52{\pm}0.08$, $15.77{\pm}1.62$ and $8.76{\pm}1.55%$, respectively. The moisture, pH, acidity and salt content of each sample did not show much differences among samples. The Hunter values(L, a and b) of Sunchang traditional kochujang were $25.72{\pm}1.58$, $23.26{\pm}1.71$ and $9.86{\pm}0.94$, respectively. The mean content of amino-type nitrogen of Sunchang traditional kochujang was $132.66{\pm}21.67\;mg%$, and there were a little difference between the minimum(100.33 mg%) and the maximum(164.56 mg%). The main free sugars of Sunchang traditional kochujang were fructose($1.86{\pm}1.01%$), dextrose($4.29{\pm}2.06%$), sucrose($0.54{\pm}1.21%$), and maltose($1.48{\pm}0.77%$). The contents of fructose, dextrose, and maltose had little difference among samples. The fatty acids in Sunchang traditional kochujang were composed of palmitic, stearic, oleic, linoleic, linolenic, octadecatetraenoic, arachidonic and behenic acid. The linoleic acid(18:2) showed the highest, occuping 59.37% of the total fatty acids.