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The role of Food Engineering ITB Engineer is Required for the Future of Indonesian Food Sector

BANDUNG, itb.ac.id – Himpunan Mahasiswa Teknik Pangan Institut Teknologi Bandung (HMPG ITB) held a webinar on food engineering on Saturday (5/2/2022). As one of a series of events from the Food Engineering Festival (FEF ITB), this activity has the title of “Foreseeing The Future of Food Engineering” and was brought by Dr. Ir. Dianika Lestari, S.T., M.T.

This Food Engineering ITB lecturer started her presentation about the role of food engineers, namely in designing and developing technology and systems for the production, distribution, storage of agricultural products and food ingredients on a commercial scale. “Food engineers also play a role in finding solutions to problems in food processing on an industrial scale,” explained Dr. Dianika.

Of course, to perform these various tasks, food engineers are not alone. There are various aspects that food engineers must understand. Starting from food commodities where food engineers will work closely with agricultural engineers and post-harvest engineering engineers.
Then food engineers must also understand food additives and food ingredients to produce safe and good food products, which can then be distributed to the consumers in the market.

Currently, of course, there are still some problems in the food sector in Indonesia. First, the use of Indonesian food raw materials for food components or ingredients is still limited. In addition, Indonesian process engineers are still limited in designing food production process technology to process local Indonesian food raw materials in a sustainable manner.

Therefore, food engineers from the Food Engineering study program have various tasks and roles for the future of Indonesian food. First, Indonesian food engineers must be able to create new technologies to exploit the potential of Indonesia’s food resources. This is certainly something that must be realized immediately because Indonesia has a lot of potential food resources that are rich in nutritional content that can be commercialized and also developed to help the economy, prosper the community, and advance the Indonesian state.

Second, the quality of the food produced must be very carefully considered and also maintained very well because food ingredients are sensitive materials and are in direct contact with humans completely. “Food products must be maintained for their continuity, quality, and capacity so that they can be accepted by the industry,” said Dianika.

Healthy and delicious food should be the goal of assembling future food processing technology. The production of healthy food on a commercial industrial scale will make it more affordable for the wider community.

On the other hand, engineers from Food Engineering and ITB in general have also contributed to producing various future food processing technologies for Indonesia. The results created are Closed Circulated Batch Reactor and Closed Circulated Semi-Continuous Reactor. Both of these reactors have various advantages. Starting from more efficient water consumption, better hygiene control, and a larger load of materials to be processed.

The second problem that food engineers must also solve is food waste, which is now a big problem all over the world. On a national scale, the estimated total food loss or food waste in Indonesia is 18 to 31 million tons per year. Of course, this is an urgent condition for improvement. The solution currently being developed by food engineers is technology for processing dried fruit and further processing food waste into materials that can be used for other things.

“Not only that, food engineers must also be able to improve the existing technology to become more efficient and resource-efficient technology,” explained Dianika.

In addition, Dianika continued, food engineers must also adapt and be able to keep up with the times, especially in Industry 4.0 which is rife with industrial automation, especially in the food processing, food packaging, and food servicing sectors, which are now mostly run by machines and technology.

Reporter : Yoel Enrico Meiliano (Food Engineering, 2020)

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Article Seminar

Food Engineering ITB’s Contribution in Advancing the Indonesian Food Industry

BANDUNG, itb.ac.id—Prof. Lienda Aliwarga Handojo as a professor of Food Processing Technology Science, Faculty of Industrial Technology, ITB, explained various researches and studies that have been carried out. The presentation was held on Saturday (11/12/2021) along with the scientific oration she delivered.

Prof. Lienda’s research focuses on research based on local raw materials such as palm oil, coconut, cocoa, cassava, etc. The research process is carried out by utilizing various processing processes to obtain various value-added food products including reducing dependence on imports.

The first research conducted was a calcium soap animal feed supplement. The purpose of this study is to reduce imports of Indonesian milk by increasing the productivity and quality of local cow’s milk. Calcium soap or often known as calcium fat, is obtained from the reaction of Palm Fatty Acid Distillate (PFAD) with lime. PFAD is a by-product of the Crude Palm Oil refining process which is very abundant in Indonesia.

This supplement can significantly increase the productivity of dairy cows’ milk, including its quality. The test results show that the quality of the calcium soap produced is slightly superior to similar products on the foreign market. This research has been stated in the form of 3 patents.

Next is the study of fermented cassava flour (fercaf). This research succeeded in developing fercaf which functions as food diversification or as a substitute for imported wheat flour. The results of this research have obtained a patent and were applied by PT Cassava Industri Estat Tujuh Sembilan in 2017 who produces fercaf on a commercial scale.

Several other studies have also been successfully carried out. Processing whey for nutritious drinks, for example. Whey which is a cheese factory waste still contains about 6 grams of protein/liter so it can be processed to produce nutritious drinks. “Coconut water processing for ready-to-drink drinks uses membrane technology. As well as processing stevia leaves as a source of low-calorie natural sugar,” he said.

In addition to the research previously mentioned, adaptation of new technologies (novel processes) for food processing was also carried out. Pulse Electric Field for preservation of avocado paste and ginger paste. Because as is known, avocado is a fruit that is not heat-resistant so that thermal preservation cannot be done. There is also an edible coating that can be used to extend the shelf life of the fruit.

Prof. Lienda conveyed several messages about the potential of the food industry in the future. “There will still be a variety of new technologies that require refinement through various studies. The success of research in universities cannot go alone. Synergy from all stakeholders is needed in preparation for Indonesia to compete and face global challenges in the food industry in the future,” said Prof. Lienda.

Reporter : Anastasia Meliana (Pharmaceutical Science and Technology, 2019)

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Article Guest Lecture

PG3101 Unit Operations in Food Engineering 1 Guest Lecture

Food Engineering Department of ITB held a guest lecture at the PG3101 Food Engineering Operations Unit 1 lecture by inviting Prof. Mukund V. Karwe, Distinguished Professor at the Department of Food Science, Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA. He is a member of the advisory board team of the Food Engineering Department of ITB. The lecture was held in 4 weeks from November 9 to 30, 2021. He explained about extrusion technology and several new technologies in food processing, namely High Pressure Processing and food processing using microwaves. Guest lectures were conducted live from the United States using Zoom media.

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Article Guest Lecture

Food Engineering Department ITB Organize Webinar on Cacao Processing and Fermentation

BANDUNG, itb.ac.id—Food Engineering Department, Faculty of Industrial Technology (FTI) Bandung Institute of Technology and the Department of Professional Development Himpunan Mahasiswa Teknik Pangan ITB (HMPG ITB) successfully held a webinar related to Chocolate Processing and Fermentation, Saturday (6/11/2021) .

This topic which is included in the series of events “Webinars on Alkalization of Nibs, Mass, and Cocoa Cake Processes” presents the Director of Espe Food and the author of the book “Kakao dan Teknologi Produksi Coklat”, Drs. Susanto Purwo as the speaker.

Susanto said, Indonesia is one of countries that has a big role in cocoa growth. Data records that in 2012, cocoa growth in Indonesia reached 400,000 tons per year. “Indonesia began to introduce cocoa plants in 1880 – 1889 and the growth of cocoa in Indonesia in that span of years had reached 12 tons per year, then to 2300 tons per year in 1911,” he explained.

What are the types of cocoa pods? He explained, there are various types of cocoa pods, ranging from Criollo, Forastero, Trinitario, and Arriba. Each type of cocoa fruit has its own characteristics. Criollo cocoa has a malt taste characteristic, while Forastero cocoa has a dark purple color and has a strong cocoa taste. Then the Trinitario cocoa from Trinidad has a light purple color and the Arriba cocoa from Ecuador has a very good taste and the fermentation time is only 24 hours.

For the fermentation process, he explained, there are two processes in cocoa fermentation, namely the aerobic process and the anaerobic process. He explained that in the fermentation outside of cocoa beans, the sap initially undergoes an anaerobic phase for 1 to 2 days, then becomes aerobic with the formation of acetic acid in the pulp.

The anaerobic process in cocoa beans is hydrolytic and begins with an enzymatic reaction. Glycosidase enzymes change the color pigments from seeds into sucrose and cyanidin through the hydrolysis process. In addition, the enzyme invertase also converts sucrose into glucose and fructose.

Furthermore, the new aerobic phase occurs after the breakdown of cells and the entry of oxygen into the cocoa bean. In this process, cyanidin compounds and complex compounds of protein-phenol change color to dark brown. Then quinone combines with amine compounds, amino acids, and sulfur-containing compounds to form compounds that reduce bitter taste.

“In addition, there is also a reaction in the cocoa bean that forms a compound called aroma precursor. These compounds will form the aroma of cocoa when roasted,” said Susanto.

Finally, Susanto explained how to check the quality of cocoa beans. “One of the most important things to do is a seed split test to check the quality,” he said. In addition, there is also another way to check the quality of cocoa beans, namely the fermentation index. The fermentation index is used to know exactly whether the cocoa beans are fermented properly or not.

Reporter: Yoel Enrico Meiliano (Food Engineering, 2020)