Never heard of that! Try asking on the Cooking Forum, if it's true they will most likely have heard of it.

Sally I'll ask hubby when he wakes up tomorrow. He's a chef and surely would know about this. We've been married 18 years and we've always stored the "reds" in our cabinet. He's never once mentioned this and has 3 resturants and cooked for the James Beard society many times. I am sure he would have mentioned this but you never know. I'll get an answer soon! Heck, your daughter might teach him something!

I've had it happen to old tins of Old Bay and curry powder (which were old enough that they should have been thrown out anyway). I would think, however, that spices stored in the fridge would pick up foreign flavors the way baking soda does.

I have some real Hungarian paprika that I bought in Budapest and I keep it in glass jars in the freezer. Otherwise it loses its punch.

No disrespect to your daughter, but I'm skeptical of the susceptible to pests reasoning since many horticultural pest repellents are made from pepper.

Like this: http://www.hotpepperwax.com/

I do see that refrigeration might help spices maintain their flavor, however.

Interesting. I googled it and came up with lots of conflicting information. Several sites said to store red spices in the fridge, for the reasons your daughter stated, but.........other sites say Another common mistake is storing your red spices in the freezer or refrigerator. Each time the spice is removed from the refrigerator and opened, according to askthemeatman.com, moisture gets in and is then trapped with the spice when the cap is twisted back on. Moisture creates clumping and weakens flavor greatly.

> Moisture creates clumping and weakens flavor greatly.

I don't know about the pests (I doubt it, since I live in FL where we have every known--and many unknown--kind of food pest there is and I've never seen or heard of anything like that) but this is true for sure.

If it isn't pests I wonder what caused that clumping in the paprika? I've never put spices in the refrigerator before and I live in southern California where it isn't damp. The cayenne and chili powder didn't have any clumps. I'd really prefer to keep all the spices in the spice drawer so I hope the pest story is an urban myth.

Many powdered spices are cut with flour or cornstarch. This could be why.

Urban cook's legend. Clumping can be from oil content, high humidity, static electricity, etc.

"red" doesn't mean diddly-squat to bugs.

Actually, I did find a bunch of bugs in my Hungarian paprika one time. And this was the spiciest paprika I have ever had so the hot factor did not deter anything.. I have not had it happen since but I freak myself out looking before I use paprika or any spices that clump together.

The paprika went from regular powder to clumped together with real bugs flying around in the jar and larvae throughout. It hasn't changed how I store them, I just really examine my paprika now.

Sabjimata is right. Anything ground up or finely grated will tend to clump. In many cases there is some form of gluten added in minute doses to keep stuff from clumping, which is why gluten free recipes so often specify gluten-free spices. It's a real problem for people with full-scale celiac disease.

I have had bugs eat my chili ristras and my cayenne pepper in the past when I lived in Oklahoma. Hard to believe & I wouldn't have if it had not happened to me. Anyway, I started storing the cayenne in the freezer after that.

I think it is more likely that the clumping issue is due to moisture getting into your spices...I find this happens no matter what container you keep them in.
To solve the clumping problem I use a product called Dry Spice. You just drop these canisters into your spice containers and it keeps your spices fresh, flavorful, and there are no clumps!
You can see what I mean at www.dryspice.com.

As far as the bugs...I doubt it. Sometimes bugs get in things...I don't think you can blaim the red color, it just happens some times.

Here is a link that might be useful: Dry Spice