AVOCADO PASTE PRESERVATION USING PULSE ELECTRIC FIELD (PEF) METHOD

• Main Author: Fikri Abdurrahman, Muhammad
• Format: Final Project
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/50749
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Avocados are one type of tropical and sub-tropical fruits that have many nutrients that are beneficial to the body. Based on data by Agricultural Ministry (2014), Indonesia can produce avocado up to 307.318 ton. However, avocados have not been widely processed as commercial food products. Avocado’s sterilization has to be done by non-thermal method to avoid the produce of bitter taste because of heating. The Pulse Electric Field (PEF) method is a food preservation method that does not utilize thermal (non-thermal) energy therefore this method is suitable for preserving avocado paste. This study aimed to determine the effect of PEF method on microbe’s quantity changes using parameters like quantity log cycle, potential decimal reduction time (D), and lethal trates of avocado paste, and to determine its effects on color change parameters (brightness, chrome, hue, and total color difference) from avocado paste during storage period. This study also aimed to determine the effect of voltage differences and PEF’s process time on the microbe’s growth during storage period. The results showed that PEF treatment can reduce the number of microbes with the greatest number of decreases as much as 1.10 log cycles with a D value of 88.13s, and a lethal rate value of 1.4 x 105 cfu / ml / s that is when the variation is 40 kV 55s. There is also a linear relationship between the value of D and the variation in time and voltage. In addition, it was found that the higher the voltage and the longer the PEF processing time, the smaller the microbial growth during the storage time. The smallest microbial growth coefficient was obtained at the variation of 40 kV 55s with a growth coefficient of 0.079 / day. The results also showed that during the storage time, the observed samples as a whole had decreased brightness values, increased yellowish and reddish values, and provided a change in the total color difference that could be observed through close observation.