Kemasan Aktif Buah Salak Pondoh (Salacca edulis Reinw.) dengan Penyerap Gas Etilen dan Gas Karbondioksida

Abstract

Snake fruit (Salacca edulis Reinw.) is one of the leading agricultural commodities in Indonesia which is currently widely consumed by the public, unfortunately fruits do not have a long shelf life after harvest. This study was purposed to obtain a combination of absorbing ethylene gases and CO2 gases produced from the respiration of fruits in order to extend shelf life. There are two combinations of absorbent material used, the chalk with zeolite and lime with activated charcoal. Zeolites and activated charcoal has a role to absorb the ethylene gas produced during the storage of snake fruit, while the role of lime to absorb CO2 gas produced from the salak respiration during storage. Concentration of each absorber used are: limestone (2.5%), zeolite (2.5%) and activated charcoal (1.5%). Type of plastic used to package the snake fruit is a type of plastic PP and PET with a thickness of 0.8 μm plastic. There are two packaging techniques that applied, with vacuum and normal. Temperature used in the fruits during their storage is 16-20° C with a humidity of 99%. The results of observations, a combination of absorbent materials which can increase the shelf life of salak and produces the smallest percentage of damage is a combination of lime with a zeolite absorbent material in plastic PETnormal. The combination was able to increase the shelf life up to 26 days.