Changes in the L, a and b values could
have resulted from the effect of both pigment
destruction and non-enzymatic browning. From
the results, the increase in the L values of heattreated
samples might have been due to the
destruction of carotenoid during heating. It has
been reported that the pigment degradation of
visual color (represented by the L*a*b values of
red chili puree) during thermal processing
followed the first-order kinetic reaction and the
dependence on temperature of the rate constants
for L*a*b follows the Arrhenius relationship
(Ahmed et al., 2002). The pigment degradation
contributed to fading of the product color so, the
L value increased.