Bell Pepper Powder: Sweet Pepper Flavor Without the Heat

Want the taste of sweet pepper without the water, the bulk or any heat? That’s bell pepper powder: dried bell pepper ground fine. It sits next to paprika in the lineup of ground Capsicum, but where paprika tastes of dried, often toasted red pepper, bell pepper powder tastes more like the fresh vegetable. Food manufacturers use more of it than home cooks do, and at home the red powder doubles as a color for pasta dough, butter and dips.

At a glance

What bell pepper powder is

Merriam-Webster defines a bell pepper as a sweet pepper, especially a large bell-shaped one. Botanically it’s Capsicum annuum. The powder is just the dried fruit, ground.

Bell pepper powder and paprika. Both are ground, dried C. annuum. Under the international Codex standard, “paprika” is the class of dried Capsicum at 480 Scoville heat units or less.⁵ Bell pepper powder is sold under its own name, and none of the standards we checked defines it separately. In the kitchen, the difference is this: paprika tastes of dried, often toasted red pepper, while bell pepper powder tastes more like the fresh vegetable.

Red and green. Red powder tastes sweeter and fruitier. Green is more vegetal and a little bitter. That’s how the powder is usually described, and we found no test of it, but it lines up with what PepperScale says about the fresh peppers: green bells are picked before they ripen and taste a little grassy and bitter, while red, yellow and orange bells have ripened and are sweeter.

Flavor and heat

Sweet, fruity and lightly vegetal, with a cooked-pepper depth once you bloom it in fat. We didn’t find a compound analysis of bell pepper powder itself. For paprika, a close relative, McCormick Science Institute credits the green, vegetable note to methoxypyrazines.⁶

No heat. Researchers at The Ohio State University report that the sweet bell pepper they tested “scored 0 SHU.”² They also note that two recessive genes for non-pungency, pun1 and pun12, have been identified in peppers.

Origin and history

Capsicum annuum is native from the southern United States to Brazil and the Caribbean. A 2014 study that combined genetics, ecology, archaeobotany and historical linguistics found it was domesticated in central-east Mexico.¹

The name. Merriam-Webster and the Online Etymology Dictionary both date the English term “bell pepper” to 1707, named for the fruit’s shape.³⁴ You’ll often read that the privateer and surgeon Lionel Wafer first used the name in 1699. We only got through part of the 1699 edition of Wafer’s book and didn’t find the name in what we read, so that claim is still untraced. Another claim, that the 18th-century historian Edward Long recorded bell peppers grown in Jamaica for pickles, couldn’t be traced either.

Popular histories also say bell peppers reached their modern form through centuries of selective breeding, and that chiles were dried long before the Aztecs. We couldn’t trace either one to a source.

How it is used

In manufactured foods. USDA’s purchasing specification for spice blends lists red bell pepper among the dehydrated vegetables in one of its salt-free seasonings.⁸ It’s widely said that bell pepper powder goes into snack-chip seasonings, but we didn’t confirm that on any specific product label.

At home.

• Instead of fresh pepper when you want the flavor without the water or bulk: soups, sauces, gravies, meatloaf, dips.
• Instead of paprika when you want pepper flavor and color without smoke or heat. Think deviled eggs, potato salad, or a dry rub for kids’ food.
• For color. Red powder tints fresh pasta dough, butter, cream cheese and dips.
• In blends. It goes well with garlic powder, onion powder, oregano and black pepper in homemade seasoning salts and rubs. See Italian seasoning.

Technique. Like paprika, it scorches fast. Warm it briefly in oil over moderate heat, or add it with liquid. Since there’s no heat to worry about, start with 1 to 2 teaspoons in a dish for four and adjust from there.

Buying and quality

• Check the label for color (red or green) and for added salt, anti-caking agents or other vegetables.
• Color and smell. A bright, even color and a clear sweet-pepper smell are good signs it’s fresh. Red powder gone brown, or green gone dull khaki, has faded.
• Clumping. Break up small lumps, but toss powder that’s caked hard or smells musty.

Storage

Keep it airtight, dark, cool and dry. We didn’t find a shelf-life figure for bell pepper powder from a regulator or standards body, and the figures floating around online couldn’t be traced. Replace it when the color and smell fade.

Nutrition and health

USDA FoodData Central has no entry for bell pepper powder. The closest is freeze-dried red sweet pepper (one SR Legacy entry), which is 2% water.⁹ That’s not the same product as an air-dried powder, and a powder’s numbers may differ. Per 100 g, and worked out per gram:

Vitamin C is the standout. On these figures, a single gram of freeze-dried red pepper carries about a fifth of the daily value, far more than any other nutrient on the list. Fiber is about a fifth of the weight, not most of it, and the potassium, iron and calcium per serving are small. We couldn’t find a USDA weight for a teaspoon of powder, so there’s no per-teaspoon figure here.

Claims that bell pepper powder protects against macular degeneration and cataracts, prevents anemia or treats constipation weren’t supported by any source we reviewed. We’re not claiming it treats or prevents any disease.

Safety

• Mycotoxins (EU). EU law caps ochratoxin A at 20 µg/kg in dried Capsicum fruits, whole or ground. The regulation’s examples are chillies, chilli powder, cayenne and paprika,¹¹ and we couldn’t confirm whether bell pepper powder is treated the same way.
• Allergy and interactions. We found no regulator or major review statement specific to bell pepper powder.

Substitutes and comparisons

• Paprika and paprika substitutes
• Paprika vs. chili powder
• Other dried Capsicum: ancho powder, jalapeño powder, cayenne pepper