Paprika: Grades, Pimentón, Color and History

For most of its history, Hungarian paprika was hot by default, and it stayed that way until the 1940s.¹ Paprika is ground, dried Capsicum annuum peppers, picked and processed so that color and sweet pepper flavor come first and heat comes second, if at all. It’s a New World plant that became the national spice of Hungary and, as pimentón, a pillar of Spanish cooking. Two European countries now protect named paprikas by law, and they all judge quality by the same yardstick: how much red pigment the powder holds, measured in ASTA color units. The Szeged PDO lets its paprika lose up to 5 units a month after packaging.

At a glance

Measured values

28 figures, sourced

Measure	Value	Scope	Source
Extractable color (ASTA), minimum Limit	120 ASTA units	Hungarian Food Codex MÉ 2-108 (2013), premium class különleges ("special")	elelmiszerlanc.kormany.hu
Capsaicinoids, heat class boundary: non-pungent (sweet) Limit	below 30 mg/kg	Hungarian Food Codex MÉ 2-108 (2013), ground paprika heat classes	elelmiszerlanc.kormany.hu
Capsaicinoids, heat class boundary: mildly hot Limit	30–200 mg/kg	Hungarian Food Codex MÉ 2-108 (2013), ground paprika heat classes	elelmiszerlanc.kormany.hu
Capsaicinoids, heat class boundary: hot Limit	200–500 mg/kg	Hungarian Food Codex MÉ 2-108 (2013), ground paprika heat classes	elelmiszerlanc.kormany.hu
Capsaicinoids, heat class boundary: very hot Limit	above 500 mg/kg	Hungarian Food Codex MÉ 2-108 (2013), ground paprika heat classes	elelmiszerlanc.kormany.hu
Extractable color (ASTA), minimum Limit	120 ASTA units, at packaging	Szegedi fűszerpaprika-őrlemény PDO single document	dfat.gov.au
Color loss, permitted Limit	5 ASTA units per month after packaging	Szegedi fűszerpaprika-őrlemény PDO single documentThe only rate-of-loss figure found for the page; a permitted allowance, not a measured decay rate.	dfat.gov.au
Capsaicin, non-pungent ceiling Limit	no more than 100 mg/kg	Szegedi fűszerpaprika-őrlemény PDO single documentThe Szeged PDO and the Hungarian codex draw heat boundaries differently (100 vs 30 mg/kg); different documents for different labels.	dfat.gov.au
Capsaicin, moderately hot band Limit	100–200 mg/kg	Szegedi fűszerpaprika-őrlemény PDO single document	dfat.gov.au
Capsaicin, hot threshold Limit	above 200 mg/kg	Szegedi fűszerpaprika-őrlemény PDO single document	dfat.gov.au
Extractable color (ASTA), minimum Limit	85 ASTA units, at end of minimum durability	Kalocsai fűszerpaprika-őrlemény PDO single document	dfat.gov.au
Capsaicin, moderately hot band Limit	30–200 mg/kg	Kalocsai fűszerpaprika-őrlemény PDO single document	dfat.gov.au
Capsaicin, hot threshold Limit	above 500 mg/kg	Kalocsai fűszerpaprika-őrlemény PDO single document	dfat.gov.au
Moisture after smoke-drying Limit	under 15 %	Pimentón de la Vera PDO, pods smoke-dried 10–15 days from about 80% moisture	assets.publishing.service.gov.uk · foodswinesfromspain.com
Extractable color (ASTA), minimum Limit	90 ASTA units, at milling	Pimentón de la Vera PDO product specification	assets.publishing.service.gov.uk
Extractable color (ASTA), minimum Limit	120 ASTA units, at grinding	Pimentón de Murcia PDO specification, Extra	ec.europa.eu
Extractable color (ASTA), minimum Limit	90 ASTA units, at grinding	Pimentón de Murcia PDO specification, Category I	ec.europa.eu
Pungency (Scoville), regular paprika Conventional range	100–500 SHU (usually no more than)	regular paprika, general rating as published by PepperScale (Is Paprika Spicy?); no method statedSources differ (same publisher); attributed, not measured	pepperscale.com
Pungency (Scoville), mild paprika Conventional range	500–1,500 SHU (typically)	mild paprika, general rating as published by PepperScale (paprika substitutes guide); no method statedSources differ (same publisher); attributed, not measured	pepperscale.com
Vitamin A (RAE) Nutrient	2,460 µg per 100 g	USDA FoodData Central, paprika (FDC ID 171329, one SR Legacy composite, last updated 2019)	fdc.nal.usda.gov
Vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol) Nutrient	29.1 mg per 100 g	USDA FoodData Central, paprika (FDC ID 171329, one SR Legacy composite, last updated 2019)	fdc.nal.usda.gov
Beta-carotene Nutrient	26,200 µg per 100 g	USDA FoodData Central, paprika (FDC ID 171329, one SR Legacy composite, last updated 2019)	fdc.nal.usda.gov
Beta-cryptoxanthin Nutrient	6,190 µg per 100 g	USDA FoodData Central, paprika (FDC ID 171329, one SR Legacy composite, last updated 2019)	fdc.nal.usda.gov
Lutein + zeaxanthin Nutrient	18,900 µg per 100 g	USDA FoodData Central, paprika (FDC ID 171329, one SR Legacy composite, last updated 2019)	fdc.nal.usda.gov
Ochratoxin A, maximum Limit	20 µg/kg	EU Regulation 2023/915, dried Capsicum fruits, explicitly including paprika	eur-lex.europa.eu
Aflatoxin B1, maximum Limit	5.0 µg/kg	EU Regulation 2023/915, dried Capsicum fruits, explicitly including paprika	eur-lex.europa.eu
Total aflatoxins, maximum Limit	10.0 µg/kg	EU Regulation 2023/915, dried Capsicum fruits, explicitly including paprika	eur-lex.europa.eu
Lead, maximum Limit	0.60 mg/kg	EU Regulation 2023/915, dried "fruit spices"The section read did not say whether paprika is classed as a fruit spice; listed with that caveat.	eur-lex.europa.eu

Each figure is quoted as its source states it, with the samples or standard it applies to. Where sources differ, both are shown; nothing is averaged. All measured values

Flavor and aroma

Good sweet paprika tastes like ripe red pepper: fruity, faintly sweet, a little earthy, sometimes with a toasted edge from drying and milling. Hot grades add a building heat on top of that fruit. Smoked Spanish pimentón tastes and smells as much of wood smoke as of pepper.

What the compounds do, as far as the sources say:

• Color. The red comes from carotenoids, mainly capsanthin and capsorubin, according to the FAO/WHO expert committee’s monograph on paprika extract.⁸ That’s what ASTA color measures (more under Buying and quality).
• Green, vegetal notes. McCormick Science Institute credits paprika’s vegetative flavor to methoxypyrazines.³ That’s their statement. We didn’t check an independent study for this page.
• Heat. Capsaicinoids. Hungary’s food codex sorts ground paprika into four heat classes by capsaicinoid content (table below).⁹
• Smoke. In Pimentón de la Vera, the smoke comes from drying the pods over oak fires, and the regulatory specification calls the result smoky, intense and penetrating in flavor and aroma.⁶

Origin and history

From Mexico. Capsicum annuum was domesticated in Mexico. A 2014 study combining genetics, ecology, archaeobotany and historical linguistics found that all four lines of evidence together pointed to central-east Mexico, with northeastern Mexico the other candidate.²

Into Europe through Spain. Peppers reached Europe through Spain after the voyages to the Americas. The Pimentón de la Vera specification puts the first records of pepper growing in the province of Cáceres at the end of the 15th century. Hieronymite friars of the Guadalupe monastery started it, and it later reached the monastery at Yuste. By the mid-18th century La Vera was turning out 1,000 arrobas of paprika a year.⁶

Into Hungary from the south. The route into Hungary ran through the Ottoman world. The Online Etymology Dictionary says the Turks brought paprika into Eastern Europe and that it was known in Hungary by 1569.¹⁰ Hungary’s Hungarikum Committee places the Turkish introduction in the 16th to 17th centuries.¹ In Szeged the plant was first kept as an ornamental and a medicinal herb before it became a spice, and Franciscan monks around Szeged-Alsóváros were probably the first growers there.

The word. English took “paprika” from Hungarian in 1839. The Hungarian word is a diminutive of Serbo-Croatian papar, “pepper”, which goes back to Latin piper or Greek piperi.

Kalocsa and Szeged. The two Hungarian growing centers each document their own history:

• Szeged’s first written record linking the town and paprika dates from 1748. In 1934 the Szeged area became a restricted zone: paprika grown outside it couldn’t be sold as Szegedi paprika.⁴ Between the two World Wars, more than ten thousand people in the area worked splitting pods, and about 20 paprika mills were running.¹
• Several Kalocsa-region settlements were producing paprika in the early 1700s. The first paprika drying plant there went up in 1880, and a chemical and paprika experimental station opened in 1917.⁵

How Hungarian paprika became sweet. For most of its history, Hungarian paprika was hot by default. The Hungarikum Committee says it stayed hot until the 1940s.¹ Two things changed that. First came mechanizing the old practice of removing the hot parts: Sharon Hudgins credits the Pálfy brothers of Szeged with an 1859 machine that stripped out the veins and seeds.¹¹ Then came breeding. Hungarian researchers write that sweet varieties were selected from non-pungent pepper types Ferenc Horváth found in Kalocsa in the 1930s.¹² You’ll sometimes read that a sweet plant was “grafted” onto others in the 1920s. No source supports grafting or that date.

Paprika and vitamin C. Albert Szent-Györgyi won the 1937 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discoveries that included vitamin C, and he was at Szeged University when he received it.¹³ The Nobel Prize’s own summary doesn’t mention paprika, and we couldn’t confirm the often-told story that he worked with Szeged paprika.

How it is used

Hungary. Paprika is the defining spice of goulash (gulyás) and paprikash (paprikás), including fish versions like catfish paprikash. Michelin’s guide calls paprikash the Hungarian national dish of the last two centuries.¹⁴ Use Hungarian-style unsmoked paprika for these. Smoked pimentón makes a different dish.

Spain. The La Vera specification says the stable red color of smoke-dried pimentón made it the best preservative for sausages and cured meats, and cites its use as a seasoning for pork, kid, lamb and game.⁶ PepperScale credits smoked paprika with the smoky flavor of chorizo and paella, and notes that hot picante paprika is the favorite seasoning for octopus in Galicia.¹⁵

Technique. Cooks usually warm paprika briefly in oil or lard, off the highest heat, before the liquid goes in. Fry it hard and it scorches fast and turns bitter.

Elsewhere. As a finishing dust, it adds color and mild pepper flavor to eggs, potato salads, roasted vegetables and dry rubs. Want heat? Reach for a hot grade or for cayenne instead.

Kinds of paprika

Hungarian grades and heat classes

There’s no single official list of Hungarian “grades” that covers every product sold. Here’s what the sources show.

The Hungarian Food Codex (directive MÉ 2-108, 2013) defines one premium quality class, különleges (“special”), with a minimum natural color of 120 ASTA units, and sorts ground paprika into four heat classes by capsaicinoid content:⁹

Scope: these are the codex’s labeling thresholds for ground paprika carrying the distinctive quality mark, not measurements of any product.

The traditional trade names are a separate thing. A 2023 Michelin Guide article, drawing on Hungarian chefs, lists eight: édesnemes (noble sweet, the most used in Hungarian cooking), csemege (delicate), csípősmentes csemege (delicate without heat), félédes (semi-sweet), rózsa (rose, aromatic and milder), csípős (hot), erős (strong, hotter than csípős) and rozsdás (“rusty”, deep red).¹⁴ Those descriptions are Michelin’s. PepperScale gives a different list of eight, ordered from mild to hot: különleges, csípősmentes csemege, csemege, csípős csemege, édesnemes, félédes, rózsa and erős, with erős the hottest.¹⁶ The two lists share six names. Only Michelin has csípős and rozsdás, and only PepperScale has különleges and csípős csemege. PepperScale also names édesnemes as the type most often exported.¹⁷ We couldn’t find the Hungarian national standard said to define these names, so we can’t give their exact color and heat specs.

The two Hungarian PDOs set their own rules:

• Szegedi fűszerpaprika-őrlemény: at least 120 ASTA units at packaging, with a permitted loss of 5 units per month. Non-pungent means no more than 100 mg/kg capsaicin, 100–200 mg/kg tastes moderately hot and above 200 mg/kg hot. Nineteen permitted varieties.⁴
• Kalocsai fűszerpaprika-őrlemény (registered as a PDO in 2012¹⁸): at least 85 ASTA units at the end of its minimum durability. 30–200 mg/kg capsaicin tastes moderately hot and above 500 mg/kg hot.⁵

The PDOs and the codex draw their heat lines in different places: the Szeged PDO’s non-pungent ceiling is 100 mg/kg, the codex’s is 30. They’re different documents for different labels, and neither is wrong.

Spanish pimentón

La Vera’s smoke comes from its climate. The damp autumn doesn’t allow sun-drying, so the pods are dried over fires.¹⁹ You’ll often read that smoked paprika is sun-dried first and then smoked. The La Vera specification describes smoke-drying from fresh, not sun-drying followed by smoking.

For more on the smoked style, see smoked paprika.

Scoville heat

We found no measured Scoville figure for paprika as a product category or for named paprika cultivars. The ranges you’ll see can be attributed but not traced to a measurement, and the two we found disagree:

Both come from the same publisher, and we show them as published without trying to reconcile them. The figures that can be traced are the Hungarian capsaicinoid thresholds above. Those are labeling bands in mg/kg, not Scoville measurements, and we haven’t converted them.

Buying and quality

Color is the main grade. The spice trade measures paprika color with ASTA Method 20.1. The American Spice Trade Association describes it as finding extractable color by reading the absorbance of an acetone extract at 460 nm.²¹ Agilent’s application note on the method adds that the reading and the sample weight together give the ASTA color value, a measure of how intense the red is. Higher means more intense.²² The protected paprikas set minimums of 85 to 120 ASTA units, but at different points in the product’s life (at milling, at packaging, or at the end of shelf life), so you can’t compare the numbers directly.⁴⁵⁶⁷

Color fades. The Szeged PDO lets its paprika lose up to 5 ASTA units a month after packaging,⁴ which is a regulator admitting that color drops in storage. Buy small amounts, and look for a deep, even red with an oily sheen, the look the Hungarian codex specifies for its premium class.⁹ Rule of thumb: a brown or dull-orange powder has lost color and, usually, flavor.

Adulteration is a known problem. A 2020 review of paprika fraud lists bulking with white pepper, curcuma, brick powder and barium sulfate, illegal dyes (most often Sudan I and IV, which it describes as possibly carcinogenic), and origin fraud. In 2004, paprika sold as Hungarian turned out to contain South American paprika. It was caught because it carried aflatoxin from a fungus that couldn’t have grown in Hungary’s climate.²³ A protected-origin label is one check you can use: the Szeged PDO, for example, requires production and packing within its defined area.⁴

The 1994 lead adulteration in Hungary

In 1994 some Hungarian ground paprika was found to contain red lead (lead tetroxide, Pb₃O₄), added to deepen the color.²⁴²³

• Clinical cases. A 1996 study of the episode followed 141 adults who’d eaten the contaminated paprika. 53 had symptoms and signs of lead poisoning, most often colic and/or anemia, and 26 more had raised lead absorption without symptoms. Chelation therapy brought complete clinical recovery in the treated patients. The authors noted that contaminated paprika hadn’t been described before as a cause of dietary lead poisoning.²⁵
• Testing. A contemporary report in Analysis Europa (December 1994) said the Hungarian Ministry of Agriculture found 5.8% of 3,432 random samples adulterated, that several people had died and dozens fallen ill, that arrests followed, and that the government believed no contaminated paprika had reached EU countries.²⁴ The clinical study doesn’t give a death count, and we couldn’t confirm one from an official source.
• Motive. The same report says the lead boosted the color and dealers’ profits.²⁴

Storage

Keep paprika airtight, dark and cool. Color is the measurable thing that fades, and the Szeged PDO’s allowance of 5 ASTA units lost per month is the only rate-of-loss figure we found.⁴ We found no sourced shelf life in months or years, and the figures floating around online couldn’t be traced. If it smells of very little and looks brownish, replace it.

Nutrition and health

Per USDA FoodData Central’s paprika entry (one SR Legacy composite, last updated 2019), 1 teaspoon weighs 2.3 g.²⁶ Per teaspoon, that works out to:

You’ll often read that a teaspoon supplies almost 40% of your daily vitamin A. By the USDA figures and the FDA Daily Value, it’s about 6%.

Paprika is rich in carotenoids by weight, but you eat it in small amounts. On lutein and zeaxanthin specifically: the NIH’s AREDS2 trial used supplements with 10 mg lutein and 2 mg zeaxanthin a day, which reduced progression from intermediate to advanced age-related macular degeneration by about 25%. The National Eye Institute says the supplements don’t prevent AMD from starting.²⁸ A teaspoon of paprika holds about 0.4 mg of the two combined. We’re not claiming paprika prevents or treats any disease.

Safety and regulatory limits

• Mycotoxins (EU). For dried Capsicum fruits, explicitly including paprika, EU law caps ochratoxin A at 20 µg/kg, aflatoxin B1 at 5.0 µg/kg and total aflatoxins at 10.0 µg/kg.²⁹
• Lead (EU). The same regulation sets 0.60 mg/kg for dried “fruit spices.” The section we read didn’t say whether paprika falls in that class, so take this limit with that caveat.²⁹
• Illegal dyes. Sudan dyes are the illegal colorants most often found in paprika.²³
• Allergy and interactions. We found no regulator or major review statement on paprika-specific interactions.

Substitutes and comparisons

• Paprika substitutes and smoked paprika substitutes
• Paprika vs. cayenne and paprika vs. chili powder
• Related powders: cayenne pepper, chili powder, bell pepper powder, gochugaru, ancho powder

Footnotes

1. Ground paprika from Szeged, Hungarikum Committee. hungarikum.hu · Reference work ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

2. Kraft et al., Multiple lines of evidence for the origin of domesticated chili pepper, PNAS, 2014. escholarship.org · Peer-reviewed ↩ ↩²

3. Paprika, McCormick Science Institute. mccormickscienceinstitute.com · Merchant ↩ ↩²

4. Szegedi fűszerpaprika-őrlemény PDO single document, EU. dfat.gov.au · Regulator ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

5. Kalocsai fűszerpaprika-őrlemény PDO single document, EU (OJ C 303, 2011). dfat.gov.au · Regulator ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

6. Pimentón de la Vera PDO product specification, Consejo Regulador. assets.publishing.service.gov.uk · Regulator ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

7. Pimentón de Murcia PDO application and specification, European Commission eAmbrosia. ec.europa.eu · Regulator ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

8. Paprika extract (CTA), FAO/WHO JECFA, 2008 (rev. 2013). fao.org · Regulator ↩ ↩²

9. MÉ 2-108, Hungarian Food Codex Committee, 2013. elelmiszerlanc.kormany.hu · Standard ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

10. paprika (n.), Online Etymology Dictionary. etymonline.com · Reference work ↩

11. Sharon Hudgins, Paprika: Hungary’s Red Gold, Fiery Foods & Barbecue Central, 2008. fieryfoodscentral.com · Publication ↩

12. Pék et al., Capsicum conservation and production in Hungary, Spanish Ministry of Agriculture library. mapa.gob.es · Reference work ↩

13. Albert Szent-Györgyi, Facts, NobelPrize.org. nobelprize.org · Reference work ↩

14. Paprika: why this smoky spice plays a crucial role in Hungarian cuisine, MICHELIN Guide, 2023. guide.michelin.com · Publication ↩ ↩²

15. Matt Bray, Spanish Paprika 101: Much More Than Smoked, PepperScale, 2018. pepperscale.com · Publication · PepperScale is also owned by Matt Bray, the editor of this site. ↩

16. Matt Bray, Is Paprika Spicy?, PepperScale, 2024. pepperscale.com · Publication · PepperScale is also owned by Matt Bray, the editor of this site. ↩ ↩²

17. Matt Bray, Hungarian Paprika Vs. Spanish Paprika: How Do They Compare?, PepperScale, 2022. pepperscale.com · Publication · PepperScale is also owned by Matt Bray, the editor of this site. ↩

18. Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 588/2012. legislation.gov.uk · Regulator ↩

19. Pimentón de la Vera PDO, Foods & Wines from Spain (ICEX). foodswinesfromspain.com · Regulator ↩ ↩²

20. Matt Bray, What’s A Good Paprika Substitute?, PepperScale, 2022. pepperscale.com · Publication · PepperScale is also owned by Matt Bray, the editor of this site. ↩

21. ASTA Method 20.1: Determination of Extractable Color in Capsicums and Their Oleoresins, American Spice Trade Association. astaspice.org · Standard ↩

22. UV-Vis Spectroscopy for Quality Assessment of Paprika as per ASTA Method 20.1, Agilent Technologies, 2025. agilent.com · Merchant ↩

23. Galvin-King, Haughey, Elliott, Detection of substitution adulteration of paprika, Foods, 2020. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov · Peer-reviewed ↩ ↩² ↩³

24. Adulteration of Paprika in Hungary, LEAD Action News (from Analysis Europa, 1994). lead.org.au · Publication ↩ ↩² ↩³

25. Kákosy, Hudák, Náray, Lead intoxication epidemic caused by ingestion of contaminated ground paprika, J Toxicol Clin Toxicol, 1996. agris.fao.org · Peer-reviewed ↩

26. Spices, paprika (FDC 171329), USDA FoodData Central. fdc.nal.usda.gov · Regulator ↩ ↩²

27. Daily Value on the Nutrition and Supplement Facts Labels, FDA. fda.gov · Regulator ↩

28. About AREDS and AREDS2, National Eye Institute. nei.nih.gov · Regulator ↩

29. Commission Regulation (EU) 2023/915, EUR-Lex. eur-lex.europa.eu · Regulator ↩ ↩²

Also drawn on

• The Good Old Days? (Joe Schwarcz, 2017), McGill University Office for Science and Society. mcgill.ca