As a tropical spice with a long cultivation history, pepper and its processed products act as essential raw materials for catering and food seasoning, sustaining strong market demand. Nevertheless, frequent adulteration incidents have troubled the pepper market in recent years. Unscrupulous vendors pass off adulterated products as genuine commodities by incorporating starchy fillers, artificial synthetic pigments and low-cost spice powders. Such malpractices severely compromise food authenticity, threaten consumer health, disrupt market order, and impede the high-quality development of the pepper industry. Accordingly, rapid and accurate detection technologies for identifying pepper adulteration have become a major focus in food safety supervision. Modern spectroscopic, chromatographic and molecular biological techniques have been increasingly and extensively adopted for the discrimination of adulterated pepper. Centered on detection technologies for pepper adulteration, this paper systematically sorted out mainstream analytical methods and elaborated on their principles, merits and demerits, application scenarios, applicable scopes and inherent limitations. It further proposes that multi-technology integration, the research and development of portable testing devices, and the establishment of standardized systems represent the core directions for future research. This work is expected to provide a theoretical reference for optimizing detection methodologies and constructing standard frameworks for pepper adulteration identification, deliver technical support for food authenticity supervision, and promote the sound development of the pepper industry.
| 科 Family | 属数 Number of genus | 种数 Number of species | 占总种数比例 Percentage of total species (%) | 属 Genus | 种数 Number of species | 占总种数比例 Percentage of total species (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 鹅膏菌科Amanitaceae | 2 | 11 | 5.26 | 鹅膏菌属 Amanita | 10 | 4.78 |
| 小菇科 Mycenaceae | 2 | 12 | 5.74 | 丝盖伞属 Inocybe | 5 | 2.39 |
| 多孔菌科 Polyporaceae | 8 | 14 | 6.70 | 蜡蘑属 Laccaria | 5 | 2.39 |
| 红菇科 Russulaceae | 3 | 23 | 11.00 | 小皮伞属 Marasmius | 6 | 2.87 |
| 小菇属 Mycena | 11 | 5.26 | ||||
| 光柄菇属 Pluteus | 5 | 2.39 | ||||
| 红菇属 Russula | 17 | 8.13 | ||||
| 栓菌属 Trametes | 5 | 2.39 |