Pemanfaatan Biji Kurma (Phoenix dactylifera L.) Sebagai Tepung dan Analisis Perubahan Mutunya Selama Penyimpanan

Abstract

Date (Phoenix dactylifera L.) seeds can be processed into flour for cookies or any other food product. The production process of flour from the seeds are washing, sulphuring, blanching, drying, milling, and sieving. Date seed flour has a slightly brownish color with value degree of whiteness was about 53,83% and value of bulk density was about 0,43 g/ml. Furthermore, date seed flour contained 7,52% of moisture, 1,19% of ash, 5,03% of protein, 12,37% of fat, 12,74 % of crude fiber, 68,64% of carbohydrate, 37,63% of starch, and 2,42 ml of NaOH 0,1 N/100 g total of acid. The packaging of the flour is needed to maintain its quality during storage thus the flour are still good and fresh when it used for food products. This study was arranged in a Completely Randomize Design with factorial design with two replications. The first factor was packaging type (polyethylene plastic, plastic woven bag, and calico bag). The second factor was storage (0, 14, 21, 28, 42, 56 days). Data were analyzed using analysis of variance and differences between treatments were determined with Duncan test. The results showed that packaging type significantly affected the moisture content. Storage significantly affected the moisture content, fat content, crude fiber content, and carbohydrate content. Date seed flour were packed with calico bag had the highest increase of water content at about 3,23%, while the lowest increase of water content was owned by flour were packed with polyethylene plastic as much as 0.75%. If the water content of flour is high, meaning that the quality of flour will decrease and easily damage physically and biologically. This study concluded that the polyethylene plastic packs could minimize the deterioration quality of the flour and resulted on longer storage.