APPLICATION OF FERMENTATION TECHNOLOGY IN AFFECTING THE QUALITY OF BELITUNG TARO (XANTHOSOMA SAGITTIFOLIUM) DODOL

摘要

Dodol, one of Indonesian traditional food, is very familiar among Indonesian, like dodol from Garut, jenang from Kudus, or suwar-suwir from Jember. Dodol is an intermediate moisture food (IMF) that has 0.60-0.80 water activity (Aw) which could trigger mold and yeast growth and make this product has short shelf life. Fermentation technology is applied to increase the shelf life of this product. Belitung taro was fermented for 36 hours and mixed with coconut milk, brown sugar, white sugar, and glutinous rice flour to make dodol. This study used three degrees of sugar concentration treatments. There were 30%, 40%, and 50% sugar concentrations using taro weight as basis. These were evaluated by using 70 untrained panelists. The result showed that formula with 30% sugar was selected best. This formula was used for further analyses, such as pH, total titratable acid (TTA), and proximate analysis. Fermentation technology could decreased the product pH and prevented microbes growth for 40 days. The other commercial taro dodols have 10 days shelf life. However, deterioration of product quality during storage is one of this product weakness. The chemical interaction between the product and the environment could trigger lipid oxidation that made the product became rancid. This could occur at the 19 days storage. Impermeable packages could overcome this problem.