Byadgi Chilly Powder / बेडगी मिर्च पाउडर

Uses
Cuisine
Byadagi chilli is an important ingredient in spicy preparations like Bisi bele bath, sambar, chutneys and other food items of South India and is widely used in the Udupi cuisine. It is also used in meat preparations because of the bright red colour that it imparts to the meat. 25 industries in and around Byadagi are involved in grinding these chillies into powder and selling them to masala manufacturers like MTR Food Products.

Oleoresin
Earlier Byadagi Chilli was grown mainly for the purpose of using it in food items as a spicy ingredient but recently, it has also been grown for the extraction of oleoresin, a red oil from the pods. Oleoresin is used in the preparation of nail polish and lipsticks. The extraction of oleoresin has also led to the creation of cold storage units in Byadagi since the chilli pods have to be maintained at a low temperature of 4 to 6-degree Celsius to maintain the colour and purity.[3] Storing in cold storage units also increases the amount of oleoresin extracted from chilli by about 30–40%. About 50 litres of oleoresin can be extracted from about 1 tonne of Byadagi chillies. Companies have been set up in and around Byadagi that are involved in the extraction of oleoresin. This oleoresin is then sent to Kerala where it is further refined before being exported to countries like US, Japan and those in Europe