Aplikasi kitosan dengan penambahan esensial oil kunyit sebagai pengawet dan edible coating produk tahu

Abstract

Tofu is a nutritious and digestible food that has been widely consumed in Indonesia. However it is a perishable food that has a short shelf life due to its rich nutrients and high moisture content. This characteristic makes both producers and consumers would like to prolong it. The objective of this research is to apply chitosan enriched with Curcuma Essential Oil (CEO) as curdling agent and as antimicrobial coating to prolong the shelf-life of tofu. Physicochemical film and antimicrobial properties of chitosan are studied. Antimicrobial activity was tested against food pathogenic and spoilage bacteria, namely Escherichia coli and Bacillus cereus, respectively. All characteristics of tofu except texture in the sensory evaluation, were not significantly differences between the chitosan-tofu, chitosan-EO tofu and control tofu. The obtained results revealed that the application of chitosan enriched with CEO as coating and curdling agent had a little effect on the quality attributes. The shelf life of chitosan coated tofu is longer by 3 days than control tofu without chitosan