Aplikasi Kitosan dengan Penambahan Ekstrak Bawang Putih sebagai Pengawet dan Edible Coating Bakso Sapi

Abstract

Chitosan is biopolymer derived by deacetylation of chitin, a major component of the shell of crustacean such crab, shrimp and crawfish. Chitosan is suitable as natural preservative and antimicrobial of edible coating. The applications of chitosan in food industries for food formulation for binding, gelling and thickening and stabilizing agent. Chitosan has the antimicrobial activity that can inhibit the growth of bacteria and fungi. The objectives of the research were to enchance the antimicrobial capacity of chitosan by adding garlic extract and to apply it for extending the shelf life of beef meatball. Antimicrobial activities of chitosan and chitosan enriched with garlic extract were assessed by agar diffusion methods. It showed that chitosan solutions of 1% (w/v) enriched with garlic extract 2% (v/v) could inhabited Pseudomonas aureginosa and Bacillus cereus. The application chitosan enriched with garlic extract as preservative shelf life agent could extend the shelf life of meatball only for 12 hours while its application of chitosan as edible coating could extended the shelf life of meatball until 24 hours for the same condition (stored at room temperature). This result revealed that the application of chitosan with or without garlic extract as edible coating were more effective in controlling microbiological growth in meatball than as preservative agent. The physical analysis of the final product showed that the application of chitosan as preservative agent could increase the gel strength of meatball due to its gelling properties. The microstructure of meatball surface ware observed with SEM. The micrographs showed that the surface of meatball coated with chitosan were more smooth and compact that those of meatball without coatings.