Steaming Maintains Fatty Acids, Antioxidants, and Proximate Content in Snack Bar Products from Cocoa Beans.

Chocolate products on the market are generally in the form of chocolate bars as snacks made from cocoa powder. Fat and powder are separated first through a pressing process to obtain the cocoa powder. Cocoa powder loses most of its fat content during processing. Therefore, the study aimed to determine the effect of steaming time on the cocoa bean content of fatty acids, free fatty acids, proximate levels, and antioxidant activity of snack bar products made from steamed cocoa beans. Seven steaming time intervals for cocoa beans were studied. The results showed that a longer steaming time affects the fatty acids, saturated fatty acids, antioxidants, and proximate in cocoa beans. Steaming time treatment at 45 minutes increased oleic acid, palmitic acid, and antioxidant activity. In addition, reducing free fatty acids represents a quality improvement that meets international Codex Alimentarius standards, offering a competitive advantage in the market. The food industry can adopt this steaming technique to develop snack bars and new products that are healthier and more sustainable by using steaming as an effective processing method in maintaining and increasing the nutritional value of products.

Formulation of Vermicelli Mixed Corn and Rice Flour with Additional Carrageenan and Its Economic Value.

The study was aimed at obtaining a vermicelli formulation on a mixture of corn and rice flour, adding carrageenan and its economic analysis. The experiment applied a 2-factorial randomized block design, where factor 1 was a mixture of corn and rice flour (5 levels) and factor 2 was carrageenan concentration (5 levels), repeated three times. The data were analyzed using ANOVA provided in SPSS. When there were significant differences, the analysis proceeded with DMRT at a level of 5% to see differences among treatments. The results show that the higher the corn flour and carrageenan concentration, the higher the vermicelli's ash and fat content. The formulation produces wet vermicelli with a good appearance. The production of vermicelli uses an extruder method. The selected vermicelli formulation was a mixture of 25% corn flour with 75% rice flour and the addition of 0.6% carrageenan. The characteristics of the wet vermicelli are moisture content of 42.84%, ash content of 0.21% on a wet basis (wb), and fat content of 0.43% wb. The organoleptic test of vermicelli was color 3.9 (liked), aroma 3.6 (liked), texture 2.6 (quite soft), taste 3.7 (liked), and general appearance 3.5 (liked). Economically, making vermicelli made of corn and rice flour is profitable because the R/C ratio value is greater than one, which is 2.27. The resulting wet vermicelli resembles wet noodles, large in size and yellow in color, so it can be recommended as gluten-free noodles, suitable for consumption by people with gluten allergies.