Talk:Chili pepper

I recently learned that during Expedition 66 the ISS crew harvested and ate chili peppers grown on the space station.

Given that the chili pepper is one of only a handful of any human crops to have been both cultivated and harvested in space, I'm surprised this information is missing from the article!

A NASA article about how the peppers were grown on the ISS can be found here:

https://www.nasa.gov/missions/station/nasas-second-pepper-harvest-sets-record-on-space-station/

As as plus, since NASA images are public domain, photos from the article could easily be added to Wikipedia. (My pick would be adding the second photo to the Cultivation gallery). There's also a great photo showing some of the harvested peppers floating in space the ISS with the crew here:

https://www.nasa.gov/image-detail/iss066e023259/

Neuroxic (talk) 06:41, 30 December 2025 (UTC)

Added. NASA images are free for non-commercial use but not unconditionally CC-by-SA or PD as Wikipedia requires. Chiswick Chap (talk) 09:16, 30 December 2025 (UTC)

Sweet, thanks! Hmm, I see that (weirdly) NASA does have some exceptions regarding its Public Domain content... but I also see that the policy basically says that content can be assumed to be PD unless noted: at least, that's what the most common NASA template on Wikimedia commons says.

I'll see if I can upload the central image to commons and then include it in the article... it'll take some time to navigate through the minutiae of these NASA tags. Neuroxic (talk) 11:14, 4 January 2026 (UTC)

Under "Production", there's some information about the chili harvest, citing FAOSTAT data.

However, I'm fairly certain that the term "green" chilis doesn't correspond to the colour of the chilis when harvested. It seems to me that "green" for whatever reason means "fresh" (as the logical counterpart to "dry" chilis).

In this classification document, the distinction is between chilis "dry" and "fresh", "green" chilis aren't mentioned at all: https://openknowledge.fao.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/c5afd226-08ab-4cda-bc45-871f1f95a3be/content

Another source that makes the fresh/dry distinction is Caliper: https://www.fao.org/statistics/caliper/tools/download/en

Konditor123 (talk) 23:47, 15 February 2026 (UTC)

Following the reference and pick list in the FAOSTAT production table, the only choice is "Chillies and peppers, green (Capsicum spp. and Pimenta spp.)" as reported in the table. There is a separate choice for dry peppers. As chili peppers are harvested when "fresh" (likely green), they probably require long-distance travel and postharvest time for the international market, when color change occurs. I don't think there would be alternate, reliable, multinational production data to use other than FAOSTAT. Zefr (talk) 00:31, 16 February 2026 (UTC)

Yes, that is what I meant and I don't suggest to turn to other data. However, I assume that without some kind of explanation people will likely think: "Wow, if this is the market for GREEN chillies alone, how big must it be for green AND red AND orange chillies combined?"

Fun Fact: I tried and failed to find a definite answer on the FAO about the meaning of "green". But I found the name of a contact person for terminology questions. My email to him was forwarded to a statistician. We exchanged a couple of emails, but, unfortunately, she didn't answer my question regarding the word "green".

Also, as you correctly point out, we have to take into account that there is no data at all for Capsicum fruits as the data on FAOSTAT also contains "Pimenta spp.". The article doesn't reflect that at the moment.

Now that I think about this, I also realise that the table under "production" only says "Green chili peppers 2024, millions of tonnes". However, that number also includes non-chilli capsicums. Konditor123 (talk) 08:29, 18 February 2026 (UTC)

I just received a longer e-mail from FAOSTAT that seems to contain promising information. I'll check it out later and let you know about my new insights. Konditor123 (talk) 08:37, 18 February 2026 (UTC)

We can only cite published claims. Chiswick Chap (talk) 09:05, 18 February 2026 (UTC)

That makes sense.

But even according to the publicly available data, the current information on Wikipedia is not correct.

The FAOSTAT data contains ALL SPECIES from the genus Capsicum (so, not only chillies, but also bell peppers) as well as ALL SPECIES from the genus Pimenta (the most important one should be allspice).

Furthermore, the green Capsicum/Pimenta data is incomplete: there is also a second dataset that contains dried crops from the genera Capsicum & Pimenta (regardless of their colour).

Here's all 2024 data from the two categories on FAOSTAT (scroll down to the bottom of the page to see the selected data):

https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/QCL?regions=5000&elements=2413&items=689,401&years=2024&output_type=pivot&file_type=csv&submit=true

I'd like to correct the information on the article, but I don't know how to approach this since the information seems so inconclusive. From what I know so far, the data is so vague that it probably shouldn't be included on Wikipedia at all.

(China might be the world's biggest producer of green peppers/allspice – but what is this information worth if we don't have the slightest idea how much of the 17+ tonnes are chilli peppers, how much are paprika and how much are allspice? For all we know, the 17+ tonnes could be mostly allspice, while the data from India could contain a much higher percentage of actual chillies. And what about fresh red chilli peppers? They could change the entire picture. Since this data isn't available at all and the available data is combined with allspice, there is a possibility that there is another country that produces much more crops from the genus capsicum – but it isn't listed here because the data is faulty...) Konditor123 (talk) 12:17, 9 March 2026 (UTC)

Zefr: what would be best here? We can only use the data that FAO have. Chiswick Chap (talk) 12:47, 9 March 2026 (UTC)

Using the 2024 FAO report for dry chillies and peppers as the only source the typical user can see, I added a statement to the production section with Special:Diff/1342598746. Zefr (talk) 20:51, 9 March 2026 (UTC)

Many thanks. Chiswick Chap (talk) 02:39, 10 March 2026 (UTC)

Thank you very much for this quick and helpful update!

I received further information from FAO:

FAO follows the international standard classifications: https://unstats.un.org/unsd/classifications/unsdclassifications/cpcv21.pdf

It contains the following definitions:

01231

This subclass is defined through the following headings/subheadings of the HS 2007: 0709.60

[Unfortunately the "Harmonized System" documents are all hidden behind a massive paywall at the World Customs Organization, so the mentioned "headings/subheadings" aren't available publicly.]

01652

This subclass includes:

- raw, dried fruits of plants of the genus Capsicum

• capsicum, sweet pepper

• chilli pepper

• cultivars of Capsicum annuum

• cayenne pepper

• jalapeno pepper

• anaheim pepper

• paprika, bell pepper

• ancho pepper

• pimento

- raw, dried fruits of plants of the genus Pimenta

• allspice, Jamaica pepper Pimenta dioica

23922

This subclass includes:

- dried fruits of plants of the genus Capsicum, ground, crushed or otherwise processed:

• capsicum, sweet pepper

• chilli pepper

• cultivars of Capsicum annuum

• cayenne pepper

• jalapeno pepper

• anaheim pepper

• paprika, bell pepper

• ancho pepper

• pimento

- dried fruits of plants of the genus Pimenta, ground, crushed or otherwise processed:

• allspice, Jamaica pepper Pimenta dioica

Here's the definition for »green« from the introduction to the vegetable chapter 012:

This group includes vegetables, i.e. temporary crops cultivated principally for human consumption both as field crops and garden crops, in the open and under protective cover. Certain gramineous and leguminous plants, if harvested for their dry grains, are classified as cereals and pulses, but belong to this group when they are harvested while green for their green grains or for their green pods (green maize, green peas, string beans, etc.). This group also includes melons, watermelons, and mushrooms. Vegetables cultivated mainly for animal feed or cultivated only for their seeds are excluded. Konditor123 (talk) 10:04, 11 March 2026 (UTC)